Sora
by Araceil
Summary: fem!Tsuna. One accident three years ago changes everything for Sawada Tsunayuki when she joins the Disciplinary Committee. Now, instead of being groomed as the wife of Vongola Decimo, she is being given a chance to become the Decimo herself.
1. Chapter 1

Usually I love stories where the Under-Dog slowly develops into a totally kick ass character through a lot of trials and crazy situations, they find their niche, their friends and a purpose in life that they didn't have before. Its one of the reasons why I like KHR so much and Tsuna has always been a character of particular love for me.

But the temptation to do something like this was entirely too strong. I can only hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

**I apologise now if anyone finds the ****beginning**** insulting/sexist, but let's face it, Italy is ****rather**** old fashioned and Japan probably even more so. Examine Reborn's behaviour toward Kyoko and Haru with a modern eye (Or rather, a feminist's), instead of teaching them how to defend themselves now that they're wrapped up in the future and defenceless, they get shunted into the kitchen and told to shut up. And when they protest suddenly 'oh noes we can't take care of ourselves and have to appease the women'. That is all the reasoning you shall get for the change in the Canon present in this chapter.**

Pairings: NONE _yet_. No Guardians/Tsuna though, explanations will be below.

**CHAPTER ONE**

**Name:** SAWADA TSUNAYUKI

**Gender:** FEMALE

**Age:** 14

**Blood Type:** A

**D.O.B.:** OCTOBER 14

**Height:** 155cm [ 5'0" ]

**Weight:** 46kg [ 7.2 stone ]

**School:** NAMIMORI MIDDLE SCHOOL

**Best Subject:** GYM

**Worst Subject:** MATHS

**Club Activities:** N/A

**Notes:** UNSUITABLE AS VONGOLA DECIMO SUCCESSOR DESPITE BEING THE ONLY VIABLE BLOOD CANDIDATE. SUGGEST MARRIAGE TO SUITABLE NON-BLOOD CANDIDATE. GROOMING TO PROCEED A.S.A.P.

_**000**_

Gokudera Bianchi sighed as she read through the papers on the young girl, Timoteo had come to her requesting a favour, he wanted her to go to Japan and teach Iemitsu's useless wall-flower of a daughter how to become a suitable wife to a Mafia Lord, the Lady Decimo. Looking through the information the head of CEDEF had on his only daughter she could only shake her head in disgust at how _little_ there was, one or two pictures obviously taken by the girl's mother here and there showed a fourteen year old girl who, for lack of a better description, could make _Bambi_ weep with envy.

She had a thick mane of wavy chocolate hair that spilled down her back, flawless pale skin on a petite face with huge cinnamon coloured brown eyes that stared at the camera in slight shock, a spoon dangling from between her lips and a bowl of ice-cream in hand. There were a few grade sheets here and there, again, obviously forwarded by the girl's mother as they were crumpled and smudged, clearly originals instead of photocopies. The results were less than fantastic in all honesty but, the rosette haired young woman frowned, they weren't bad enough to refuse her Candidacy to become the Decimo herself.

The Poison Assassin sighed at the obvious Political ploy this was, no Mafia wanted a woman at the steering wheel, they would lose face. No, they were obviously intending to groom little Tsunayuki-chan to be a good little bed warmer for the next best thing and then have her squirt out the next generation of Vongola. There were occasions when a female would lead but it was almost _always_ because her husband had been the head before his untimely demise and she had been forced to step in and lead because all legitimate Heirs were either dead or too young to take the mantle.

Not for the first time the Assassin thanked her lucky stars that she had a brother, even if he were born from a Mistress instead of her mother, at least with him taking over as Head of the Family when he proved capable and ready for it she wouldn't be expected to marry someone who _was_ capable of doing so because no one wanted to listen to a pair of breasts give orders. She sneered unhappily and set the files down before going to pack her bags and belongings, mentally drawing up lists of what to teach Tsunayuki-chan when she arrived in Japan.

Poison Cooking was definitely on the top of the list, along with how to defend herself, because Bianchi had a _very_ unpleasant feeling that her husband to be was that thug, Xanxus.

_**000**_

If you were to ask anyone around Namimori about Sawada Tsunayuki, you would receive varying answers.

Those who knew a little of her would say that she was a no-body, kept to herself, didn't do too well in school but was fairly pretty. Those who knew her a little better would look nervous while saying pretty much the same thing, only leaving off the no-body part and advising her not to upset the girl. The people in her school would go silent, their mouths sealing shut before they walked away, swiftly with their heads down trying to ignore the fact that someone had ever even asked them about Sawada Tsunayuki. If one were to ask her _friends..._ well, they _wouldn't_ ask her friends because A) no one would be able to believe they were her friends and B) you would be sent to the hospital for three months for not showing the proper respect when speaking of the young woman.

Information on Sawada Tsunayuki was so thin on the ground that Bianchi was beginning to think that there was entirely more to this than met the eye and Iemitsu knew absolutely _fuck – all_ about his daughter and her life.

_**000**_

The young woman in question was currently finishing up the last of her breakfast, long before her mother had even risen for the day, taking her dishes to the sink she rinsed them and set them on the side ready to be washed up properly later before gathering up her school back and heading out, pausing in the hall just long enough to put her boots and blazer on – giving herself one last check in the mirror to make sure there was no fault with her appearance before opening the front door and leaving. Not even hesitating as she passed the bear-like man stood to attention at the front gate, obviously having been waiting for her.

"Ohaiyou Tetsuya-kun," she greeted, offering him a small smile of greeting which was returned with a larger and warmer one from the older male who bowed differentially to the tiny girl.

"Ohaiyou gozaimasu Sawada-hime," he returned, smile widening at the sour look that twisted her face.

"How many times, Tetsuya-kun? How many times must I beg you not to call me that?" she asked, glancing over at him from the corner of a brown eye as they marched towards Namimori Middle School, punctuality was essential and being a member of the Disciplinary Committee it was their duty to be there earlier even than the Teachers to oversee the opening of the school and the checking of the facilities. Break ins were not tolerated and neither was damage done after-hours by club members, usually the Sheep were well behaved but there was always one with more balls than brains who tried to upset the order and wander away from the Flock.

"At least once more, Yuki-sama," the black haired male relented, still grinning like a bastard at the look on the young girl's face, the one that she was currently directing towards the sky saying quite plainly through the downturn of her mouth and the wrinkling of her nose '_Why me?_'.

"Better, I suppose," she grumbled, "As good as I'll get I'm sure," she added before they reached the main gates, the assembled Namimori Prefects taking one look at her and immediately assembling in ranks and bowing, all at once, in perfect form while wishing her a good morning. She would say this about Kyouya-kun, he had them well trained at least, that or terrified to the point of compliance. "At ease for Kami-sama's sake. Someone open the gate before Hibari-senpai gets here and chews us out," she demanded waving a hand for them to get a bloody move on, the dark haired Prefect used to be there at five AM on the dot but started showing up later at seven since Tsunayuki joined them and took position as the Club's Errand Girl – that didn't last long, she rose through the ranks at an alarming rate, startling even Hibari himself with what she was capable of when given the chance to flourish in an environment that encouraged her to grow a spine and was willing to praise her when she displayed it. She was affectionately referred to as the Disciplinary Committee's Princess, they all respected her and if pushed (though not very hard) they would quite easily admit that they enjoyed her company, just like Hibari Kyouya, she showed a side softer side of herself to them and only them. From everyone else, she hid her true self with the ease and experience of a lifetime.

Half an hour later and the usual morning preparations were complete, Tsunayuki armed with pen and clipboard moving from room to room, making notes as she surveyed each of them, deciding which teacher needed more chalk, more text books, what desks had been defaced and owners to be punished, belongings left behind to be submitted to the Lost Property Office to be picked up at a later date. She then moved onto the Gym and took note of what equipment was missing, checked the rosters for which clubs were on the previous evening and which one would have had access to the equipment with which to steal from it – this information she would give directly to Hibari-senpai when he walked through those gates, he would want to deal with this kind of unruly behaviour himself.

With another hour before her Senpai was actually due at the gates Tsunayuki returned to the Committee room and gathered up the files in Hibari-senpai's in-box and began to sort through them. Taking note of who had been issued Detentions the previous day by Teachers, checked reports handed in by other Prefects regarding rule-breaking and punishments, she would file these, amend various Student Records with the newly acquired information and then check her e-mails for the latest gossip. Being the only girl in the Committee made her fairly invaluable, no one could gather information like her, the fact that her best friend (secretly so as not to affect the girl's popularity) was Sasagawa Kyoko meant that the 'Errand Girl' got the best gossip from around the school. Kurokawa Hana wouldn't send her anything, but her Facebook status updates were _very_ informative for figuring out what was fact and fiction.

Tsunayuki would note all this information down, rewrite it in a coherent fashion and when ten to seven rolled around, she would gather it up, along with the theft report and the names of delinquents who skipped out on Detention the evening before along with those who ditched their Class duties and present them to Hibari-senpai.

Three years ago, she had been weak, useless, pathetic and basically an embarrassment to anyone who had ever had the misfortune of meeting her.

That changed when she met Hibari Kyouya, despite others claiming him to be a feral beast, he had his honour and he didn't hit girls for misdemeanour's or accidents. When Tsunayuki knocked into him, sending his paperwork flying and upsetting her drink over his shirt, she had been terrified that she would end up swallowing several of her own teeth but instead, as punishment, he forced her to work as the Disciplinary Committee's Errand Girl for the next two weeks. She would have to fetch food and drinks for the members, sort and deliver paperwork, take notes of their meetings and handle the filing system, she would also have to snitch on any misbehaviour she witnessed for the next two months. If she failed to show up or broke anymore rules, Hibari promised to send her to the hospital – though he never said it at the time, Tsunayuki now knew that had he carried through with his threat and beat her black and blue, at least she would have an unscathed face.

While working there, the boys had been shocked with how swiftly and efficiently she was able to sort their filing system and their paperwork, not that it was bad to begin with but she just made it easier. She also seemed to know everything that was happening in and around the school better than any of them did, girls liked to gossip and she heard more things than they did because, well, people tended to clam up and go silent around the Disciplinary Committee for fear of getting '_Bitten to Death_'. The more she got to know the Prefect!Delinquents the more they came to like the, at the time, shy young girl who reminded them so much of a scared little rabbit that even the harshest of them couldn't find it in him to torment her. It actually resulted in them leaping to her protection when they witnessed some guys from another school harass her on her way home from school one evening.

She couldn't bring herself to leave them after that when her punishment was over and, instead of forcing her away, Hibari merely handed her a uniform and gave her a time to show up the next morning and that was that. No-Good Tsuna became a member of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee.

It was hard, there were plenty of bruises and blood and sweat, even a few tears, and a broken bone from learning how to fight and uphold the Order of Namimori Middle but she wouldn't give it up for anything. They were her boys and Kami-sama only knew how badly everything would fall apart if she weren't there to keep it all moving smoothly, keep Hibari-senpai from pitching a fit due to caffeine deprivation, keep everyone abreast of the clique troubles the Sheep were having and act as a buffer between the Prefect!Delinquents and the delicate sensibilities of the Teachers.

"Sawada," Hibari greeted, stalking through the gates with his usual morning fanfare.

The girl nodded, having been stood at the gate for a few minutes before his arrival, falling into step just behind and to the left of him, she handed him the clipboard with everything nicely summed up in her neat handwriting, "Good morning, Senpai," she greeted smoothly as they moved back towards the school.

They walked in silence, Hibari going at half his usual stalking speed in idle consideration to her shorter legs so she wouldn't be forced to jog unbecomingly to keep up with him (And break the rules of No Running in the Hallways), the older teenager greedily reading through the information she provided him, a stormy scowl, darker than his usual, marring his face as he sneered down at the papers. Someone had stolen from his beloved Namimori Middle, someone was going to get Bitten to Death, slowly and painfully. He was ever so slightly growling under his breath by the time they reached the Committee room and he finished reading, sitting himself down at his desk and setting her report to one side as he turned the computer on.

"Go and stand at the Gates," he ordered, a dark scowl on his face as he glared at the computer screen, no doubt attempting to will it to work faster through the power of Killing Intent alone, as he did every morning and failed. "Detain the Baseball Club members as they come in."

She nodded and bowed shortly, "Hai, Senpai. The usual lock-down location?" she asked flatly, usually Detainment involved removing the troublemakers from the rest of the Herd and to a secure location so they wouldn't give the other Sheep any ideas about making a fuss. Usually this location was the field behind the outside Swimming Pool, out of sight of the near-by Science block due to the treeline. Though sometimes he preferred to take care of such troublemakers off campus – he didn't want the pavements or the walls to get stained with unnecessary blood.

He nodded sharply and the girl turned on heel and left him to his brooding, knowing better than to say anything with the mood he was currently in.

"Hisoka, Makoto, Satoshi, with me. We are to Detain members of the Baseball Club as they come in and remove them to the usual location for interrogation," she barked at the lined up members of the Committee as they flanked the corridor, standing to attention as usual. When she first joined she found this behaviour disconcerting but now she knew it was their way of showing respect for her and for Hibari-senpai and Tetsuya-kun. Almost immediately the three Prefects grunted their acceptance and fell into step behind her, maintaining a distance of a few feet behind her so as not to step on her heels – she was much more graceful than she used to be but that didn't mean she didn't have her clumsy moments from time to time.

"Sawada-hime," Satoshi began, somewhat hesitantly, he was a new member of the club if her memory was correct, transferred in six months ago from another school after being expelled for Arson. The law was laid down within an hour of his arrival within the school and three months later and several unpleasant scuffles later he was drafted into the Committee. She grunted to confirm she heard his tentative opening, "What seems to be the problem with the Baseball Club?" he asked curiously.

She sniffed and frowned, usually her boys didn't need a reason to do as told but the Baseball Club did have an event coming up soon and no one liked to lose face in front of other schools, she would have to request some special consideration in light of that from Hibari-senpai. Unless he liked the idea of a full scale uprising he would hopefully listen to her and not break anything in the player's hands or arms.

"The Baseball Club had access to the Equipment room yesterday evening, a bat and a catchers mitt have gone missing along with several balls. Theft is inexcusable in Namimori Satoshi-kun," she told him firmly, glancing over her shoulder with sharp, hawk-like brown eyes, "And it will be punished as appropriate."

He nodded, Regent-quiffed mottled brown/blond hair (Hibari-senpai would not tolerate breaks in the dress-code, Delinquents with bleached hair were forced to dye it black, Satoshi evidentially was not as capable of doing so as others, she would have to pull him aside later that evening and do it for him properly) wobbling with how fast he was doing so, "Understood ma'am," he agreed under her cold gaze, watching as she turned away and breathing a silent sigh of relief as she did so. True, Hibari-sama intimidated him but he knew where he stood with the other male and so didn't _fear_ him, but the girl, Sawada-hime, she was a different kettle of chips. He had fought her only once and he hadn't even been able to lift an arm before one of her tiny fists was smashing _through_ his guard and into his gut, nailing him so hard he fell to his hands and knees immediately and up-chucked everything he had eaten that day and then some. The others in the Committee respected and adored her, she had their unwavering loyalty just as Hibari-sama did, but they seemed more concerned about upsetting _her_ than him.

It made him worry, if Hibari-sama was going to put them in hospital for pissing him off, what would Sawada-hime do to them if they pissed her off?

_**000**_

Gokudera Bianchi was, quite honestly, not expecting this.

'_You really screwed the Pooch on this one, didn't you Iemitsu?_' the rosette haired assassin thought as she watched his daughter easily command the large force of Japanese Thugs around, clad in a pristine black blazer with a red arm-band proudly displaying her membership to the Namimori Disciplinary Committee, the crisp, flawless white shirt blouse she wore underneath, her neat little blood red tie and her smartly pleated mid-thigh length skirt. Black tights and steel-toe capped black knee high boots completed the image that her high-ponytail and lack of make-up complimented nicely. All business and cold professionalism this girl. The Assassin grinned, she knew several Hitmen who would approve of this girl for that appearance alone, never mind her straight spine, poker face and the three mountainous teenagers with hard faces following along behind her at a respectful distance.

She had been observing the girl for three days now, looking for a way to insert herself into the young woman's life but the more she watched, the more certain she was that she deserved to be given a legitimate chance to become the Vongola Decimo.

Yes her grades weren't perfect, she spent all her time working in the Disciplinary Committee and maintaining such levels of professionalism there that she rarely attended class and never collected her Homework. The Disciplinary Committee wasn't a club but given how its members were there before the teachers in the morning and left long after them in the evening she would say, hand on her heart, that it was more intensive than any club and it taught much better combat skills. Yes she wasn't the Head, but anyone with eyes could see that she was running the show, Hibari Kyouya maintained Order, Sawada Tsunayuki maintained the Disciplinary Committee _AND_ Hibari Kyouya.

Watching the young woman swiftly and efficiently take down large groups of men twice her hight and three times her weight with only her fists and the occasional pipe or garbage can lid, she could safely say the girl had the combat skills, there was room for improvement – as always – but she was far beyond her peer group and better even than the last two candidates for the Vongola Decimo position. Add to that, her Leadership abilities, witnessing her direct the three monoliths through the crowds of semi-alarmed, semi-resigned students to haul out various troublemakers, even wading in herself once or twice, clearly showed that she was respected, admired and even _liked_ by those under her command.

The rosette haired woman sat back and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and reaching for her cell.

"_**Bianchi? Why are you calling? Has there been a problem?**_" came Timoteo's voice from the other end of the line, his voice sending shocks of mixed emotions through her as she wondered how to break the news to him.

"**I am sorry, Nono,**" she began with a heavy sigh, "**I cannot do this job.**"

There was a breath of silence before he spoke again, she could hear the perplexed frown in his voice, "_**What has brought this decision on, Bianchi?**_" he asked.

"**Iemitsu's information is ****wrong!**** The girl, Tsunayuki Sawada, his daughter, she is nothing like his information claims. I cannot, in good conscious or sound mind, turn this girl into a Marriage Piece. Not when she could ****legitimately**** be capable of leading the Vongola!**" the woman explained in a rush, her voice powerful, determined, she would not do this, she would not destroy the powerful young woman who was only just growing into what she _could_ be down below. "**She is already more qualified – **" Bianchi winced here but ploughed on regardless, "**than your sons were.**"

Timoteo sighed, grunting a little as he shifted in his seat, she felt guilt stab at her again, not only for reminding the man of the deaths of his sons but also for unloading yet another difficult decision onto the back of an old man who's legs could barely hold his own weight, never mind the weight of expectations everyone was laying on him to pick a good successor. "_**You wish for her to be tested?**_" he asked tiredly.

"**I do. ****Fairly****. She has the potential, she certainly has the skill, everything else is dependent on who guides her and the chances you're willing to give her,**" the rosette haired Italian explained, sitting back on her cold seat on the roof opposite the school, raising her binoculars to spy on the young girl once again as she greeted the icy-faced young man who led the Disciplinary Committee as they escorted several teenagers to a secluded location.

She heard a sigh on the other end, followed by a slight chuckle, "_**I must admit, I was feeling guilty about forcing a young lady to Wed against her will. I shall be sending Reborn along to train her. Perhaps, after ten generations, it is time the Vongola accept the future. Yes, time for a change I believe.**_" She heard him chuckle as he said this, as if he were enjoying a good joke that only he could understand.

Bianchi smiled, "**Thank you Nono, you will not regret this,**" she swore, listening to his laugh again, feeling lighter at the undertones of hope and slight excitement she could hear within it.

"_**Timoteo my dear, how many times must I encourage you to use my name? Nono is merely a title and a stuffy one at that!**_" he exclaimed down the line, his voice light with mirth, "_**I trust you my dear, now please prepare for Reborn's arrival. Gather as much information on the Young Lady as possible as it seems Iemitsu has been less than effective in this instance**_**.**"

"**Of course sir,**" the rosette agreed with a smile, "**It was nice speaking to you again. Ciao.**"

"_**Ciao,**_" he bade her before the line went dead.

Pocketing her phone and smiling in hope, Bianchi lifted her binoculars again and began to study the young girl with the future of the greatest Mafia family in the World resting on her petite shoulders. It wasn't foolishness to believe that those deceptively fragile shoulders were more than capable of holding up to the task.

_**000**_

**So? What did you think? 8) I rather like it.**

**For those of you confused, Nono is a title, much like Primo or Decimo, its not his name. The Ninth's real name is Timoteo and the three former candidates were all his sons – I always felt sorry for the poor guy when I found that out. His three real sons were murdered and his adoptive one tried to kill him more than once.**

Pairings for Tsuna: **I know people are going to be pushing for Tsuna/one of the Guardians but I'm going to set the record straight with – that's never going to happen. Tsunayuki is a professional to the core, if they're working for her or with her, then she will be emotionally unable to form attachments of that nature. The current winner of my mental pairing poll is Dino. Feel free to come up with your own options. No Squalo though – that's a relationship that Tsuna may end up putting him in jail or hospital for. He is a chronic disturber of the peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

**My goodness! The response has been huge, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed. As for now, I just have a few notes that I felt I had to reiterate from the reviews.**

**1) I didn't know about the 8th Vongola, Daniella was it? I've only read the manga and to my memory this person hasn't been featured, maybe once if at all. If she did manage to snatch the Vongola Octavia title then I can say either she was one seriously badass lady or her husband snuffed it and the Ring recognised her over any of the other candidates.**

**2) Tsuna is still Tsuna, I've just incorporated a lot more of her Hyper-Dying-Will mode into her personality, as far as I'm aware, this is a natural progression in the canon series as Tsuna grows up and matures. Given how she has been in an environment where weakness and 'Herbivore' behaviour is frowned upon, I imagine she would come into that maturity a lot faster. She's good at faking a lot of things but bare in mind she's still a fourteen year old girl and she is STILL Tsuna. Still scared of dogs, still a klutz, still bad in school and still possessing something of an inferiority complex.**

**3) Reborn/Tsuna is ****NEVER – GOING – TO – HAPPEN****! I cannot express this enough people. 8( I'm going to be blunt here, I can't stand pedo pairings, they make me sick given how I was a victim as a child. The largest age gap I can tolerate between a teenager and an adult is six years (Dino and Tsuna push it being a scant seven years apart but it is redeemed due to the fact that Dino is a gentleman, a bit of a goof but an overall really nice guy who would go at Tsuna's pace and not try and force anything on her). Let me point this out, how old are the Arcobaleno? Subtract that from Bianchi's age (17) and then compare that to how old Reborn would be – he's shown as an adult, with his own apartment and he's already a very well recognised hitman so I'm guessing his age at 24 maybe older. Now tell me that isn't Paedophilic. **

**CHAPTER TWO**

Acting as normally as possible when you could _tell_ someone had been observing you very closely for the past few days was difficult, Sawada Tsunayuki probably wouldn't have been able to manage it if she weren't actually quite used to it. In the first few months of her life as a Member of the Disciplinary Committee Tetsuya-kun had ordered various members to protect her until Hibari-senpai deemed her combat abilities up to snuff. She could sense nothing sinister about the presence, merely curiosity so she allowed it to remain unBitten for now, that would change the split-second she sensed a change in their intentions.

The brunette sighed as she brushed her hair in the pre-dawn twilight, giving the small framed picture at her elbow an unhappy scowl as she did so. Her parents, perpetually airheaded simpleton Sawada Nana and absentee-couldn't-care-less Sawada Iemitsu, the son of a bitch who liked to call himself her Papa and pretend that he couldn't see her swallowing back bile and venom as she smiled weakly and spoke to him as if he were actually a member of _her_ family.

She set her brush down with deceptive delicacy as she reached for a black hair-band and neatly pulled her hair back, all of her movements light and showing absolutely nothing of the anger she held for her Paternal DNA Provider – otherwise known as a Pissant Dog Parent/PNP. She hated him. Well, she claimed she hated him. In all honesty, she knew it would have been easier if she hated him, she wouldn't feel so goddamn bitter and hurt whenever her mother brought him up. He showed up twice maybe in the last three years, teasing her, calling her his Fuzzy-Peaches and No-Good Tsu-chan, commenting on how she was looking more and more like her mother did at her age, leaving his crap lying everywhere, sleeping in his underwear in the living room, bursting into her room and demanding Father-Daughter baths, scolding her about her poor test results – as if he actually had the _Right_ to do so! Telling her to get out of her own house, shoving a few Yen bills into her hands and telling her to hang out with friends before correcting himself and telling her to go play at the arcade or something, because she didn't _have_ friends so he could have some quality time with her mother who practically panted for what little scraps of affection the bastard threw at her like a dog.

The girl raised a fist and made to punch her mirror before stopping herself, lowering her hands and getting to her feet, taking the picture frame and setting it face down before stalking out of her room to go and make herself breakfast and a Bento for later.

Hm, today would be a Thursday so she was making two extra, one for Tetsuya-kun who worked on Wednesday evenings and so couldn't make his own Lunch and one for Hibari-senpai who had to drop his younger sister off at Day Care on Thursday mornings, he always gave her the lunch he made for himself because their parents could never be bothered to make any for them, too busy with their business. There were times when Tsunayuki wandered if they even realised they had a six-year-old girl running around their house, which was a shame because Yume was an utter sweetheart. It was something of a shock to her system to run into Hibari-senpai one evening with the little girl hanging off one hand and gabbling away about the pony she painted at school and how it was clearly not a tentacle monster like Yuuta-chan kept saying it was.

Humming softly to herself as she made up the three Bento boxes she continued to think on the happenings of the last week, anything to keep her mind off the Pig that gave her half her DNA. The theft of the baseball equipment had been resolved, none of the Club members were responsible for taking them but one Yamamoto Takeshi was responsible for the theft in a round about kind of manner – it was his fangirls who stole them, it was the equipment he had been using that vanished. Tsunayuki found out from Kyoko and Hana after the fact during lunch and made from enquiries around, eventually finding the culprits and punishing them herself as Hibari-senpai ordered. Tsunayuki took them into the girls' bathroom, forced them to strip entirely, took their underwear, dumped their clothes within the toilets and then returned them, keeping the bras and panties. Either the girls would stay in the bathroom, naked and cold with the chance of being seen by boys when the door was opened, or they would be forced to wear the soaking wet toilet clothes.

Either way, the next day they returned the equipment and Tsunayuki returned their underwear to them – she wasn't without kindness, she had taken them home and cleaned them before returning them. She smirked slightly at the memory of their embarrassed faces, word never really did get out about the punishments she forced the girls to go through, occasionally someone would be forced to wear soaking wet, suspicious smelling clothing, one girl ended up with a shaved head once (they didn't know that EVERYTHING had been shaved, eyebrows, eyelashes, leg hair, arm hair, toes, pits, intimates, everything – and razor burn was a total _bitch_ for the poor girl involved). Otherwise, the punishments were largely unknown to anyone outside the Disciplinary Committee, inside, she was known as the one you didn't want to be punished by. Hibari would just hurt you, Sawada would humiliate you.

Troublemakers from other schools? That was a different matter. Tsunayuki had been given free-reign to be as cruel and unpleasant as she wanted with them, especially if they were causing trouble with Namimori Middle. Usually she ended fights with a single overwhelming hit that would put people out immediately, then followed up with a simple warning, if they did it again, she would break their fingers one bone at a time, preventing them from ever being able to use that hand properly for the rest of their lives. Her threats weren't taken very seriously at first but she _did_ carry through with them which gave her a reputation of painful honesty, if she said she was going to do something, _then she was going to do it._

It was strange but a lot of the delinquents gave her an unusual amount of respect for that.

She sighed, packing up the freshly made Bento and checking the clock, she was a little behind schedule, no time for a proper breakfast. Grabbing a slice of bread she buttered it and began her customary journey to school – this time without her usual shadow, Tetsuya-kun would show up before first bell.

Wait, was that Mochida-san?

The girl paused, bread half raised to her mouth as she caught sight of the Kendo Club's somewhat maniacal Captain, that was unusual, Kyoko-chan said to her once that he was always almost late to school because he enjoyed sleeping in, there were no Kendo events so he wouldn't be doing early morning train- ah. The bread fell from nerveless, disbelieving fingers as brown eyes realised just what they were seeing her bestfriend's '_boyfriend_' doing.

Mochida-san was currently wrapped around a pretty young woman, tongue down her throat and hands up her top, roaming without regret or care that he was apparently Taken or the fact that they were in public and it was ten past five in the morning. The girl was pink in the face and panting as a hand slid down and quested under her skirt until she pushed him away, blushing brightly and gesturing for him to follow her back into the house behind her, he followed, stupid grin on his face and blatant problem in his pants.

Quite well aware that his relationship with Kyoko was something he forced on the other girl and everyone around them supported with their typical Sheep behaviour, the brunette nodded to herself, picked up her fallen bread and binned it properly before making her way towards the school. Now she could provide her friend with a legitimate reason to publicly ditch his ass in a way that wouldn't damage her at all and guaranteed her protection from the female population and a fair portion of the more old fashioned males. She smirked thinking about what Sasagawa Ryohei was going to do to Mochida when word hit his ears about the other teenager's unfaithfulness to his beloved baby-sister.

The morning passed as usual with Tsunayuki taking over Hibari-senpai's usual duties as well as he wouldn't be showing up until the final Bell, things still went as smoothly as they ever did though, the students knew better than to cause trouble.

Cinnamon coloured eyes narrowed at the sight of Mochida and Kyoko-chan coming in together and she marched over, seizing the School Idol's arm, "Sasagawa-san, come with me," she ordered with narrowed eyes, making the caramel haired girl squeak a little in surprise at the sudden rough handling.

"Hey! Don't grab her like that you bit- OGFF!" Mochida grunted, tumbling backwards from the ruthless kick the Prefect delivered to his stomach.

"Shut up and learn your place," she hissed with dark eyes before hauling the girl away, "Satoshi, Makoto, keep an eye out for stragglers," she ordered, hearing them bark in acknowledgement as she dragged the caramel haired girl to the Lock-Down location, releasing her only when they were out of sight of the student body. "I'm sorry Kyoko-chan, I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked, personality doing a complete one-eighty as she faced the other girl.

She smiled and shook her head, "No, I'm alright Tsuna-chan," she assured her friend, "What made you pull me out? Has something happened with Oniichan?" she asked, worry colouring her tone. Usually Tsunayuki would tell her if her brother had been getting into difficulties, he came up with such strange and outlandish excuses that quite often she didn't have the heart to tell him that she was well aware of what he was getting up to.

"No, your brother has been well behaved lately," she promised the younger girl, "But I did catch Mochida-san making out with a girl from another school this morning."

Kyoko stared at her for a moment, her eyes widening as she absorbed the information, clearly unsure of how to react to this information, she coughed slightly, "Um, how far was he..." she trailed off, uncertain of how to word her question to her friend who was usually so succinct when it came to information.

"He had his hands up both her skirt and her blouse. Given how the unknown female proceeded then lead him into her house I don't have much in the way of doubts as to whether or not they had intercourse," Tsunayuki explained, shifting in embarrassment as she adopted a more formal tone as she tried to hide her own difficulties with explaining just how blatant a sexual scene she stumbled upon was.

Kyoko nodded and sighed heavily, offering the other girl a small, resigned smile, "Thank you Tsuna-chan, I knew I shouldn't have trusted him but..." she sighed and shrugged, "He seemed very earnest about it all. Thank you for telling me."

"Want me to make him disappear a few months?" the Disciplinary Committee Member asked gently, holding up a clenched fist and pointing to it so Kyoko couldn't escape her meaning – if her friend asked it of her, she would quite cheerfully hospitalise the Senior and she knew Hibari wouldn't bat an eyelid. Maybe frown at her for wasting time on herbivores but he knew that she was more concerned with keeping the Flock happy to prevent uprisings than he was, he was content to leave them be and then deal with them when they got unruly.

Kyoko shook her head, smile widening a little bit, "No, I'm sure Oniichan will want to deal with it himself." She shook her head in mild frustration and amusement at how protective both her brother and her bestfriend were regarding her well being. She had only a mild hope that Hana would leave things be but being familiar with her dark haired friend she knew that while the other girl wouldn't physically harm Mochida-senpai, she would tear his reputation to shreds.

Tsunayuki nodded, eyeing her friend warily, "What are you going to do?" she asked.

The caramel haired girl gave her another smile, "I'm going to wish him all the happiness in the world with his other girl and not get between their love," she explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Tsuna nodded in understanding, true Kyoko's intentions were a _lot_ purer than what the other girl had predicted would come of this incident but she had just one piece of advice for her friend, "Kyoko-chan, when you break it to him, do it in a public place. I'm sure there are lots of other people who would like to wish him luck for the future," she pointed out with a small smile.

Kyoko nodded and quickly jogged off to go and do just that and Tsunayuki sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Maybe I should have agreed with Kyouya-kun to make that '_No fraternisation_' rule. It would make life so much easier," she muttered before making her way towards the front gates, dismissing both Satoshi – who's hair was black as pitch and properly done thanks to the girl – and Makoto who both needed to be in class.

She handed out Detentions to anyone who came through the gates after that second bell unless they had a _reasonable_ excuse for tardiness and were only first time offenders, or hadn't offended in longer than three or four months. She even teasingly assigned one to Hibari who glowered, slightly pink cheeked, at her. She merely grinned as he stalked past her muttering about cheeky Omnivores and troublesome females, no doubt going to his office to check through her usual morning reports and eat half the Bento she provided for him – he always forgot breakfast on Thursdays, Yume taking up all his time as her usual care-taker took that day off to visit her sick father at a Carehome in Nagasaki.

The day passed as per usual, save for the Maths test that she didn't even know they were supposed to be having and Kyoko's confrontation with Mochida that afternoon at Lunch-time, she wished him luck with his girlfriend but when he tried to refuse the claim, telling her that it was nothing but a rumour, she told him quite factually that Sawada-san told her about seeing them earlier that morning and she wouldn't waste her time coming up with lies like that. And everyone knew that Sawada-san didn't lie. This of course set off a storm amidst the students and Hibari gave her the evil eye for the rest of the day for sending the Herbivores into a frenzy.

She sighed, making her way home with the results of her Maths test, dismal as per-usual but in all honesty she didn't much care, Maths was pretty useless in the long term applications, she didn't need Algebra or that SohCahToa thing, she cared nothing for Adjacencies, Hypotenuse and Angles. In all honesty, she learned what she needed to learn of Maths in Elementary. Division, Fraction, Addition, Substitution and Multiplications. She didn't see why her poor grade – just scraping a pass at this stage – was such a big deal, though the Senseis' didn't give her grief over it, understanding that the majority of her time was taken up by her Prefect Duties, they just requested that she put the same amount of energy into her education as she did into her duties. Nezu-sensei was typically too terrified of her to hold with his usual abusive behaviour to under-achievers as well.

"_Tadaima_," she called as she unlocked the front door.

"_Okaeri,_ Tsu-chan," her mother greeted, smiling brightly from the kitchen as her daughter toed her boots off – none the wiser to her involvement with the Disciplinary Committee due to the fact that Tsunayuki had removed her blazer and had it over her arm, the band carefully hidden when she turned it inside out. If her mother found out then the _other_ half of her DNA donation would be told and she didn't want him to know, she wanted to see how long it would actually take that bastard to realise that he didn't know a _fucking_ thing about her and realise that she wanted even less to do with him than he actually had to do with her.

"Hm? What's that Tsu-chan?" her mother asked, catching sight of her test papers and liberating them from her daughter while she was too busy trying to remove her boots to protect them, the girl grit her teeth in annoyance but pasted on an embarrassed and guilty look on her face. She loved her mother but there were somethings the woman just didn't have the mental capacity to understand, and Tsunayuki didn't want her sticking her nose into her life and making things worse.

"Ah-haha, my Maths test from this morning, I was helping at the Office when they announced it so I had no idea it was even happening today. The grade isn't fantastic but I passed, I'm sorry Okaasan, I'll do better next time, I promise," she swore, rubbing the back of her neck, something of an empty promise but if it got her mother off her back then great. Tsunayuki would, of course, start checking with Kyoko-chan about tests their class were taking more often and put in a few more hours dedicated to studying but that was it, she would also make more of an effort to hide those results from her mother and let her only witness her end of Year results.

Sawada Nana _was_ as airheaded as everyone knew her to be, but unbeknownst to them she was also surprisingly perceptive, enough so that she knew that she had to make sure no one would worry about her. She knew her daughter hated her father for leaving them so long and so often for work, she knew her husband felt horribly about it and wished he didn't have to, she knew he tried to protect her and Tsu-chan and worried for them every day and she knew her daughter only needed to see one sign of her unhappiness regarding her father's absence to allow her true feelings regarding the man to surface. So she kept quiet and maintained an air of happiness, but she wanted her daughter to be happy as well, she left so early in the mornings, taking care of herself and returned home so late in the evening that she was becoming concerned for her little girl who was so secretive and cool towards others. And now this, poor school results.

"I know Tsu-chan," she told the young girl cheerfully as she returned the test results, "They aren't the best but they will get better, I got a flyer this morning regarding Home Tutoring and decided to give them a ring," she chirped happily, completely unaware of the young girl's true feelings, or the way her eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped open rather unattractively.

"Okaasan! My results aren't bad enough that I need a Tutor! And I don't even have the time to deal with one anyway! You know I don't leave school until late," she reminded the woman with an unhappy pout, yes she was hamming it up but like mother like daughter, they exaggerated what was expected and needed of them at the time.

"Oh but Tsu-chan," her mother whined, eyes going suspiciously shiny, making the girl almost want to take a step back and flee from the house as the infamous Sawada-Puppy-Eyes appeared, she could understand the difficulties Tetsuya-kun and the other boys now had refusing her when she used that look on them now. She vowed to never do so again because it was _clearly_ an unfair advantage. "I only want what's best for you!"

"Argh, alright! But two days out of the week only!" the brunette capitulated seriously, her mother's face lighting up and then falling again just as fast.

"But Tsu-chan, the flyer said he was going to stay with us until there was an improvement in your grades," the woman explained to her increasingly frustrated and caged feeling daughter.

"Okaasan that – you're letting a complete Stranger stay with us because of an add that got stuffed through the – " Tsunayuki protested only to end up getting cut off by a young voice calling out with a surprising volume at her feet.

"**CIAOSSU!**" It was a baby, a toddler dressed in a miniature Armani pin-striped suit, a fedora with an orange trim perched on his little head, two ringlets escaping from under the brim to frame his face like sideburns as intelligent beetle-black eyes blinked up at them, turning to Tsunayuki and studying her with a disturbing intensity that made her eyes narrow at the unspoken challenge the infant just issued. He smiled and set his briefcase down, looking away but for the life of her Tsuna couldn't say that she had won that exchange, merely had it put on hold for more important things. "As a service, since I arrived a few minutes early, I'll evaluate you right now," he declared, looking up at the Middle-schooler, absently taking note that even though he could see _right up her skirt_ he saw not a single hint of her underwear due to the bike shorts she wore under it. Interesting girl.

"Who's child are you?" Sawada Nana asked, her brown eyes wide as she leaned over to better see him, hm, he could understand why Iemitsu would be so rabid about keeping this woman out of the darkness of the Underworld, she practically radiated wholesome light and cosy homeliness. Something he would definitely try to horde all to himself, his daughter though, Iemitsu had a lot to say about her by the information Bianchi provided him painted an entirely different picture, as night and day compared to what her father provided. The question now was, who was wrong?

"Hm, me? I am Reborn, the Home Tutor," he decreed and even though Nana spluttered in disbelief and surprise, the girl, Tsunayuki-san, merely narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. She knew he was different from your average child obviously, good instincts, was this the Vongola Hyper Intuition or was she simply more perceptive than most?

Tsunayuki looked sharply at her mother, almost startling the woman with her expression, come to think of it, Nana didn't think she had ever seen her daughter angry, upset yes but Tsuna wasn't really one to become angry with the world. "I really hope you haven't paid for this," she told the woman before snatching her test paper back, "I'll be in my room studying if you need me," she grunted before marching past woman and baby and making her way upstairs.

True, not what Reborn expected but in some ways it was better, while she was disbelieving she remained composed and made one small comment that would encourage underlings to not make the same mistake again, he smirked and gestured for Nana to go into the kitchen where they could talk about his tutoring Tsunayuki-chan. He was already beginning to think that this job was going to be more enjoyable than Bianchi-chan indicated in her phone calls to him about the young girl.

_**000**_

Honestly, a _baby?_

Tsuna sighed as she browsed through her maths text book, working on the problems as she read them, she hated maths but if she wanted to prove to her mother that she didn't need such nosy and time-consuming things as Tutors then she really had to hoist her grades into the upper-echelons. The woman was determined to see her go off to University, and Tsuna, while she knew she would probably be able to make it, also knew that she had two options alone from being a member of Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee. She could join the Police, they would welcome her due to her combat abilities, organisational skills and street-smarts, or she could join whatever Hibari-senpai turned his gang of Delinquents into when he finally decided to continue onto Higher Education.

Either way, she pretty much had her life sussed out on the barest of bones, anything else could be fleshed in when she finally had a better idea of what direction she was going in.

"Calm, composed, well organised, capable and above all else possessing of surprising leadership qualities." And there went any hope of peace and quiet as she chomped clean through her pencil and gagged on the splinters, sweet Kami she hadn't even heard him come in until he was speaking!

Whipping around she spat various splinters aside and glared at him, pulling on the shield of the Disciplinary Committee's Authority around her like a cloak, "It is highly improper to pick the lock on a young lady's bedroom door," she pointed out coldly, the infant merely smirked up at her and she didn't think she had ever felt more desire to drop kick a toddler out of a window before in her life. "Why are you here Strange-Child?" she asked coldly, crossing her legs and eyeing him from her seat.

"You're a little rough around the edges but its my job to make you into a Mafia Lord, or in this case, Lady," the infant explained, dropping his briefcase and pulling out a rather impressive rifle. His smile fell a little at the plain and unimpressed look on the teenage girl's face.

"Why me?" she asked flatly.

A reasonable question, "You are the last blood candidate for the position of Vongola Decimo, the tenth head of the Vongola Mafia family," the infant explained, shouldering his rifle, becoming more than a little put out as the girl's expression remained flat and unimpressed, clearly she was going to be much more difficult to terrorise than Dino-chan had been. He suppressed a smirk, that just meant that when he finally _did_ get to her, it would be all the sweeter, he did so love a challenge.

"I refuse," the girl stated flatly, still staring at the baby with as bored an expression as she could muster. Internally, she was freaking the hell out.

Reborn smirked, "You can't refuse. The original intentions of the Famiglia were to marry you off to a suitable candidate not related by blood – " Reborn made no mention of the change of her facial expression and the sudden heavy weight in the room, her hand dropped and she straightened up, her expression darkening into something that would have sent Delinquents haring for the hills squealing shrilly with fright. Reborn however made a mental note of how her presence seemed sharper and more threatening when her freedom was threatened, interesting. " – however, upon observation it was decided that you held too much potential to be wasted as a marriage piece. I was sent here as an independent assessor and instructor at the request of the Vongola Nono, your predecessor when the information your father – "

Reborn never had a chance to finish his sentence before he was forced to move the rifle protectively over his stomach, Tsunayuki's foot impacting the metal harshly and throwing him like a rag-doll into the wall behind him. The change in her personality could have been announced with a jarring click, or a snap, her eyes widening, her pupils dilating as, with all the expression a doll would have worn, she attacked him, lashing out with a single minded focus to destroy him. He lifted the rifle and squeezed off a round, the girl slipping to the side of the bullet, strands of brown hair only lightly disturbed as she shoved the rifle aside and lashed out at him again.

The girl was good, she was _fantastic!_

Reborn grunted as he was forced to evade yet another strike from the nimble young woman who's combat capabilities were clearly underestimated from Bianchi's reports – the assassin had admitted that she knew the girl was better than what she had seen but how much was a mystery, Reborn could safely admit that if the two women were to get into a fight the older and more experienced Assassin would _lose_.

She fought fast, strong and ruthlessly, but above all, she was smart about it, she didn't bulldoze her way in and try to overpower him, she knew he wasn't an ordinary child and so her attacks reflected this – wolf tactics, go in cause as much damage as possible and then get out before retaliation could occur.

Out of idle curiosity's sake, Reborn allowed her to catch him, she wasn't going to stop unless he put her down at which point he would lose all opportunity of finding out what set her off, so he sacrificed a little pride and gained some interesting bruises when, in an admittedly completely unexpected and inspired move, the girl managed to pin him to the floor. Crouching over him, her eyes almost orange in a way that made him suddenly feel a little apprehension when he felt the heat sparking off her body. Had she already learned to access the Dying Will Flames? Giotto had done so out of pure instinct, was his descendent also capable of it?

"Do not ever... speak of him to me again," the teenage girl rasped, her voice actually growling with the force of her command.

And Reborn realised what set her off – mentioning Iemitsu.

_**000**_

**To anyone who thinks that I've made an unreasonable adjustment by having Tsuna hate Iemitsu I would like to give you a little explanation.**

My childhood was pretty much _exactly_ the same as Tsuna's. Absentee father who spent all his time working abroad who only came home a few times out of a year, took over when he was home, a mother who was too busy with University to take care of me – though she did her best when she was able to, the only difference was that I had an older brother complicating things and being a (loveable) ass.

So yes, I do believe I have made Tsuna's feelings in regards to Iemitsu **ENTIRELY** appropriate given how I loathed my father for a good few years or was completely neutral to the point of forgetting I even had a father at times. It was easier to pretend he didn't exist, it saved me some pain and prevented me from getting angry again. I have a bad habit of holding grudges and being bitter for a long time.

I'm older now, I know better, I understand that my Dad didn't want to leave us all the time but it was the only way he could provide for us, I feel guilty for hating him but that's because I'm older. I know him better now and I do love him, unconditionally, however, Tsuna is hurting and she only knows one side of the situation, her's. Iemitsu is still under the impression she's a sweet little five-year-old girl, his princess, and that's blinding him to the fact that his relationship with her is about to crash and burn.


	3. Chapter 3

**I love everyone who has reviewed, I do, but please, enough about the Eighth Vongola, I have admitted my mistake and lack of knowledge on that front, however, since it is such a large part of the story I am using THIS (**artistic Licence**) in order to keep things going. Thank you to all those lovely people who patiently and /kindly/ corrected my lack of information, also to that wonderful individual who reminded me that Gokudera and Bianchi have a different last names due to issues he has with his own father and also pointed out the original translation error of Nono vs Noveno – the real Italian for Ninth – and the fact that nonno in Japanese can be translated as Grandpa, usually in Katakana, making the error very likely.**

**Also, for those perturbed by Tsuna's behaviour, we've only seen the business face thus far, we'll be seeing a lot more of the real Tsuna in this chapter. **

**CHAPTER THREE**

Shuddering a little, the brunette released the child, swiftly backing away and sitting heavily on her bed as she realised just what she'd done, burying her face in her hands. Shame and guilt warring with anger and bitter betrayal inside of her, a battle of the heavy cold and the heady burning.

Her mother told her the last time her father left that he had become a star, a euphemism for dying and going to heaven but she was hardly _stupid_. Has he really died, her mother would have been distraught rather than look so starry eyed, that look she got when her husband was doing something she thought was '_cool_', his belongings were still in the house, he didn't even have a Wake or a ceremony, he was obviously still alive and Tsunayuki didn't believe for a single moment that he was a Traffic co-ordinator at construction sites. That sort of job did _not_ take you overseas. The joking speculation she once had with Kyoko-chan – the only person in the world she could speak of about her father and not end up so furious she would burst into tears – about what his real job had ranged from being a high-class Okama or a high-up member of a Criminal Syndicate and everything in between.

Listening to the Strange Infant who was clearly a whole lot more than anything Tsunayuki had ever encountered set alarm bells ringing in her head, in the beginning she thought it was some child-prodigy getting his jollies off duping her mother and lording his superior brain power over her but then he showed up, quieter than a fucking cat, picking the lock on her bedroom door and revealing that he was packing a freaking Heckler and Koch PSG-1 long range semi-automatic sniper rifle. A real one, not a toy and those were not only illegal when assembled but accessible only by those who worked in the Namimori Prefecture Police Special Assault Team, she had only _seen_ one of those before – Hibari-senpai's uncle worked the Gun cage at the Police Station.

Then he started talking about the Mafia, how she was the last blood connection – meaning that one of her parents had ties to the Mafia. And suddenly that joking speculation about her father being high up in the food chain of some Crime Family wasn't so funny or ridiculous as it had seemed at the time. Hearing that someone had decided, without even speaking to her or knowing her, to turn her into someone's Little Woman made things worse then to find out that her father had actually been giving these people information – no doubt the incorrect information that led to her being chosen as said Little Woman just...

Everything went hot and her ears started ringing, she couldn't remember the fight, just that the child had attempted to shoot her with that Sniper Rifle, the one he shouldn't even be able to lift given its weight and length.

She shuddered as the shame and guilt eventually won out, making all the hairs on her arms stand on end as her eyes started to prickle, Christ, she'd just gone off on a kid who didn't even know any better, she could have broken his bones! Maybe even killed him! She remembered that in Health Class that if you shook a baby too hard it would kill them through brain damage – did kicking them into a wall like a deflated football do less damage then?

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... to hurt you," she managed to get out, peering from between her fingers to assess whether the child was alright. He was, unnaturally so, but then again, so was his fighting ability. Now that she wasn't consumed with the need to reinforce her desire for silence in regards to her father, she frowned slightly, rethinking herself from earlier, the Sniper Rifle weighed just over 8 kilograms, it was quite unwieldy for even most adults given the length of just under forty-eight inches, hell, she wouldn't have been able to handle that. It hit her then, this child was unnatural. Not just a genius but _physically_ unnatural, stronger, faster, infinitely more capable. The only reason she had even been able to land a hit on him during their exchange earlier was because she had taken him by surprise and he was attempting to manoeuvre the gun, defend himself and _not_ harm her in the process, he _allowed_ her to pin him!

A cold chill ran up her arms as she realised that for the first time in her life, she had come up against someone that she was hopelessly outmatched against and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

"You didn't," the Strange Child told her simply, dusting himself off and straightening his little suit, "It would take a lot more than a temper tantrum, or you in actual fact, to harm me," he told her dismissively, as if he didn't notice her revelation and the consequential shiver that wracked her body.

"So, He really is in the Mafia," she murmured, eyeing the child as he nodded.

"Yes, head of CEDEF, standing for **Consulenza Esterna Della Famiglia** the External Advisers of the Family. They don't have much power in times of peace but when things get interesting the Head of CEDEF becomes the second in command in the Famiglia. They also have equal say in who becomes the next Heir and inherits the right to become the next head of the Famiglia," the Strange Child explained as he hopped up onto her table and sat himself down in front of her, gun forgotten on the floor. "Based on the information they provided, it was decided that you would become the wife of the Vongola Decimo as a blood connection was essential to maintain the hierarchy. However, your Tutor decided to observe you a while and came to the conclusion that you were more capable to succeed as the Decimo than the man you had been intended to marry. Hence my presence, I am to decide whether or not you are worthy of the Title and train you to fulfil it if you are."

She took a deep breath, still half hoping that this was just a bad joke, "Can you prove this whole Mafia business?" she asked, lowering her hands and sitting up straighter.

"Yes," Reborn assured her bluntly, thoroughly dashing her hopes of just turning him out of the house and telling him to play his head-games elsewhere.

"What are my options then?" she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"As I listed before, you have only two, possibly three if you felt so inclined. The most favourable to you is to _become_ the tenth head of the Vongola, it will be hard work, I do not abide slackers and once your name and role become public you will have more than a few people with grudges against the family targeting you as a scapegoat for their anger and hurt. However, it does afford you the protection of the Vongola and their allied families as well as securing your future indefinitely. Your other option is to submit to the training that was planned for you to begin with, becoming the wife of the Vongola Decimo." The Strange Child shifted slightly, pulling on the rim of his hat, "I shall not lie, the man that was intended for you to marry is... not pleasant. He is ruthless, violent and the exact opposite of what the Vongola stood for when it was founded over four-hundred years ago, however, he is _strong_ and that has earned him support amidst the Famiglia. Were you to go down this route, you would spend the majority of your time protecting yourself from him and then turning around and pretending you were happy with the situation. Your last option, again, if you feel so inclined, would be suicide. It would do little to help you and while it would spite the Vongola, your loss would not be crippling. The ill will of the head of CEDEF may be more damaging though."

Lead, Marry or Die.

Such fantastic options.

"I cannot just refuse to have anything to do with the Vongola?" she asked weakly, frowning slightly and sighing as the Strange Child shook his head.

"Before now your family has been able to escape notice due to the fact you were unknown to the main branch. Your line is descended _directly_ from the Vongola Primo, in essence, it is '_pure_'. Now that it has been discovered... you are Vongola whether you want to be or not," he explained coolly.

This was too much, she needed to... she couldn't handle this.

"I'm just going to... I need to think about this," she managed to get out before getting to her feet and leaving the room, her pace quickening as she made her way down the stairs and to the porch, ignoring her mother's chirping inquiry about what she had been talking about with Reborn-chan upstairs as she slipped on her trainers and left the house. She had to get away.

The girl ran down the street, pushing herself as hard as she could go, flinching only slightly when the dog that gave her so much trouble barked at her passing, kicking up a fuss now that she was long out of reach and sight. It was foolish, a hold-over from her days as No-Good-Tsuna three years ago, the desire and habit of just _running_ when things became overwhelming, having to leave when she couldn't handle things any longer. When she didn't _want_ to handle things anymore. When she joined the Disciplinary Committee they noticed how she was the best runner out of all of them, some of the older members – now left, moving onto Higher Education – had taught her what they knew of Parkour. When she combined that with the Gymnastics and Dance that the girls did, she became quite adept at it, to the point where she often felt more comfortable with the wind in her face or with her feet no longer glued to the ground.

Her worries fell away as she revelled in the feeling of her body powering her through the streets, vaulting over railings and down flights of stairs, eventually she came to a stop, panting, her cheeks flushed and her hair escaping its neat ponytail as she leaned against the fencing surrounding the play park. She sat heavily on one of the benches, watching the children playing with envy as little boys dug around in the sandbox, showing off their trucks and robots, making cities that were then destroyed in epic Mecha show-downs, just like in the animes. Girls doing handstands and jumping off swings, shrieking when their dresses flew up and gave passers-by eyefuls that they didn't want of prepubescent children.

She didn't know why, but... her mind cast back to the days when it would be her and Him in the sandpit, he would have one of the mecha and a samurai figurine, she would have a barbie and there would be grand adventures as the Samurai tried to rescue the cute barbie Princess from the evil mecha robot. Back when things were simple and sweet, back before she knew enough to be angry, back before she began to notice how the other kids had both their parents all the time and not just occasionally. Back when his visits were fun because she didn't feel abandoned when he left again, feeding her one stupid lie after another until the happiness tasted like ash in her mouth and her eyes burned hearing more untruthes from his mouth.

And now, she had basically been _sold_ to his criminal family, on his _recommendation_!

"Sawada-hime?"

She looked up sharply, Tetsuya-kun frowning at her with little Yume-chan perched in his arms, chubby little hands latched onto the collar of his shirt and blinking down at her with large blue-grey eyes, her thick shiny black hair pulled back into a neat little french-plait with a pink ribbon. Tsunayuki quickly swallowed back the tears of frustration, hopelessness and betrayal back, Yume looked up to her as her Oneechan, the one who wasn't scared of her Oniichan, the brave unbreakable one. She couldn't see her upset, it would scare her.

"Tetsuya-kun, Yume-chan, hello, I didn't expect to see you today," she admitted sheepishly, getting to her feet quickly as Yume smiled brightly at her, displaying her wobbly front teeth as she lifted her pudgy arms, begging to be picked up. It boggled the mind to think that such a doll was the little sister of perpetual thunder-cloud Hibari Kyouya but that was the thing, Hibari's seeming one man war against thugs and bullies Tsuna could only assume was out of a desire to ensure that his little sister would _never_ be bullied because there were none left, and no one would risk getting bitten to death (That was just idle speculation on her part, she doubted it was in any way the case and even laughed at her own naivety for just thinking it). There was also the fact that he liked fighting entirely too much and the morals his police officer Uncle drummed into him wouldn't allow him to go for '_innocents_' so instead he targeted the rule breakers and wrong doers – like batman Yume had once chirped excitedly when Tsuna explained why her Niichan often came back with blood on his clothes. She still got the feeling that Hibari must have been sleeping when the lessons about 'Police Brutality' were brought up.

She smiled and gathered the little girl up, "And how have you been?" she asked, ignoring the concerned look that was still etched on Tetsuya's face as she rubbed noses with the little girl.

She listened with half an ear as the girl told her of school and Yuuta-chan being naughty while she began to walk along with Tetsuya-kun to Hibari-senpai's home, she didn't often walk Yume-chan back, only when Tetsuya was unable to as Hibari was uneasy about having the little girl publicly associated with him, just in case some idiot got it into their heads to use her against him. Which Tsuna thought was rather a bit petty, yes he beat them and put them in hospital but they healed, nothing permanent was done to them, if anything, she was more concerned about what revenge someone may concoct on her. She gave warnings, true, five maximum along with detentions but when things were truly severe, she would unload on a punishment that made her entirely too many enemies. Such as the incident in the girl's bathroom with taking their underwear and leaving them with clothes she'd dumped in the toilets, those girls were well known for taking boys into quiet places, forcing them to strip, drawing all over their bodies, taking pictures and then blackmailing them. One had even attempted to get a teacher charged as a Paedophile when he refused to doctor her grades in exchange for sexual favours, Tsuna quite liked that teacher, he was reasonable and didn't get angry with her when she asked for help with her homework because she was so busy with the DC that she missed out on the relevant class material.

She tried to be fair but some people just wouldn't take the hint, so she had to play hardball and get nasty.

"Oniichan!" Yume shrilled, bringing Tsuna out of her thoughts rather painfully as she flinched, cringing over the piercing shriek right next to her ear. It amazed her that she still had functioning ears after spending so much time with the little girl and at the Sasagawa house with Ryohei-kun training in the back-garden.

They were practically in the back-garden of the Hibari residence, the little girl squirming for freedom when she spotted her beloved older brother sat on the porch idly sitting in the garden with one of his text books out and finishing some last minute homework. Letting the little girl down, Tsuna smiled slightly as she immediately rushed over to her brother who didn't so much as blink as her tiny weight slammed into his side and rapidly attempted to shimmy itself into his lap, he just lifted the papers he had been writing on and used her back as a make-shift desk much to her noisy amusement as his pen tickled her through the paper.

"Kusakabe, Sawada," he greeted, pausing only briefly to ruffle the little girl's hair, making several strands stick up like a rather mutant mohawk.

"Kyo-san," Tetsuya greeted, sitting himself opposite his '_boss_'. "Your parents are away again?" he asked, noting how the boy was working outside and his parents' car was no where to be seen, the garage door closed and locked.

He hummed in confirmation before frowning slightly and looking up at Tsuna, a scowl slowly beginning to darken his face as his eyes roamed over her, "What happened, Omnivore?" he demanded, carefully setting aside his papers so he couldn't crush them with the force of his grip.

Brown eyes widened, "Wha-what do you mean, Senpai?" she asked, inwardly she was telling herself that she really should have expected him to notice that something was off about her right now, even Tetsuya-kun had noticed, the only one who had yet to realise that she was a little out of it was Yume-chan and she was only six. Grey-blue eyes narrowed even further as he gently righted his younger sister and set her on her feet.

"Yume, go and take your shoes off and make a start on your homework," the sixteen year old ordered, the little girl pouted but knew better than to argue.

"Alright, is Neechan staying for dinner?" she asked, looking over at Tsuna who shook her head.

"Yes," Hibari over-ruled and the little girl squealed in delight, racing into the traditional Japanese style house, ignoring the spluttered objections of the brunette in her wake. In the silence that followed after the little girl had left, the short haired male turned to his – and he would never, ever say this out loud – friend and folded his arms, scowling expectantly and waiting for her to explain. She may have changed from her old ways, unsheathed hidden fangs and claws, but she was still part Herbivore, all he had to do was wait and she would spill her guts, with or without getting Bitten to provide encouragement.

Tsuna was beginning to feel boxed in again, Tetsuya had moved, taking a position beside the gate to prevent her from leaving and it wasn't like she was physically capable of defeating Hibari-senpai, she could give him a good fight, they would both limp away from it bruised and bloody but it would be his victory without question. Save that one time she got him in a place that no man likes to be kicked with steel-toe capped boots.

"Please, Tsunayuki, we are here for you," Tetsuya told her gently. Perhaps it was the realisation that yes, they _were_ there for her, in their own ways, all the boys in the Disciplinary Committee would stand beside her regardless of what the future held, or maybe it was the fact that he actually called her by her name, without honorifics, no teasing, no joking, for the first time in their lives. He was being serious.

She bit her lip and sighed, sitting down and picking at the grass and wandering how to explain this, "..." she opened her mouth to speak only to close it, licking her lips as the words stuck in her throat, the two boys, her bestfriends, waiting silently for her to gather herself and tell them what was wrong. Kami-sama, she wished Kyoko-chan were here.

"My father is a criminal," she finally burst out, "He's – he _gave_ me to his Crime Family! They decided that, from what he told them, I wasn't, that I had to marry some complete stranger who's supposed to be some angry abusive bastard only now that someone's actually come here and met me they say that I've either gotta marry this bastard, commit suicide or _actually lead them myself!_" she summed up, now practically hysterical as it all sank in regardless of her attempt to run away from the truth earlier. She could feel the thick knot of raw emotions rising up her throat, something red and thick and alive that threatened to choke her as her eyes burned and her nose clogged, forcing her to sniffle to breathe as she clamped a hand over her mouth – she felt like she was going to throw up, scream, burst into tears, maybe all of the above.

"Lead, marry or die," Hibari summed up flatly, looking neither surprised nor angry at her outburst, he looked completely unaffected and that more than anything helped her to calm down, Tetsuya was frowning only a little as he contemplated her words but in the grand scheme of things, neither of them had started freaking out. Their lack of reaction brought her back down with a bit of a bump, feeling embarrassment beginning to crawl through her body as the hysterical emotions of before dropped back down into her stomach and relaxed, no longer feeling so tight and painful.

Tetsuya nodded, "You'll just have to lead them then, won't you?" he suggested, making the girl look over at him and her Senpai nod in agreement.

"To mate with a Herbivore would be a waste of your potential, even more so than ending your life due to the whims of one," the black haired male told her coolly, picking up his books, the matter apparently closed in his opinion, leaving Tsunayuki to begin hyperventilating again as it _wasn't_ closed, not in the slightest!

"I don't _want_ to lead them! They're criminals!" she exclaimed in a mix of revulsion and horror.

At this, Tetsuya started to laugh and Hibari smirked, "Yuki-san, the Disciplinary Committee would be considered a criminal organisation by the rest of the world if they knew half of what we got up to," the regent-hair styled teenager pointed out, chuckling under his breath at the confused and somewhat indignant look on the younger girl's face, "You're a good girl, we made a collective decision to keep you out of that darker side, that's the part that I manage. You handle the light, make us look good to the Law Abiders, the teachers, keep everything organised and maintain everything as well as keep the girls that we, as men, can't punish."

"Omnivore, you will lead that pack of Herbivores," Hibari told her, narrowing his eyes as he looked up from his homework, "Or I shall bite you to death for not keeping them in line," he promised darkly.

Tsuna flinched back out of habit for a split second before his words actually sank in, '_keep them in line_', if she _did_ take control of this criminal family, she would be calling the shots, she would be able to prevent them from dabbling in things like drugs or human trafficking, if that was what they dealt in. She could drive out all other cruel criminal groups from her area, make sure it was _safe_ for regular people, no one would have to worry about getting mugged or being bullied, it would be like the Disciplinary Committee but on an almost _city_ wide scale, probably bigger!

"If you ever need any help, just ask, Hime," Tetsuya told her, smiling broadly when he noticed the tense wild edge to the young girl beginning to relax as she began to think, instead of how to get away from her problem, how to make the best of it.

Brown eyes looked up and she smiled, climbing to her feet, "Thanks Tetsuya-kun," she told him, making her way towards the gate.

"You're staying for dinner," Hibari reminded her without looking up from his books as he wrote.

"I wouldn't want to crowd you Senpai," she told him.

"Yume will cry and disturb the peace," he grumbled surlily, glowering up at her, "You – are – staying – for dinner," he repeated slowly and with great force as Tetsuya chuckled under his breath, Tsuna holding her hands, palm up in the universal gesture of surrender. Some things never changed, Hibari's desire for space and silence were sadly always ignored by his younger sister, in moments like that he would take silence over space and allow her whatever she wanted, as long as it kept her _quiet_.

_**000**_

On a rooftop opposite the Hibari residence, Reborn hummed, leaning against Bianchi's knee.

"What are your thoughts on Hibari Kyoya?" he asked curiously.

The rosette haired woman smiled, "Almost the reincarnation of Alaude from the First Generation if the Primo's journals are accurate, he would make a fine Cloud Guardian, he already has the beginnings of his own CEDEF in the Disciplinary Committee."

The Sun Arcobaleno hummed, true, he did like Hibari as Tsunayuki's Cloud Guardian, but the relationship between the two teenagers was very complicated, also, he had seen a side of Tsunayuki that was more reminiscent of Iemitsu's accounting than what he had seen before now. The way she was practically on the verge of a break down when explaining what she had been told, and he was going to have to have a talk to her about 'Need to Know' when next they spoke, a break down that calmed and then nearly became hysterical before calming again. Her temperment was most mercurial when she stopped displaying that serious side of herself that Reborn had come to associate with Iemitsu when he was serious and stopped goofing off.

"What do you think of her, love?" Bianchi asked, her strawberry and cherry blossom scented hair falling around him as she shifted forward to lean over him.

"She has a great deal of potential, she will be fun to train," he admitted honestly, "But first, a few tests, to see how she takes to the Vongola methods."

The rosette haired woman hummed, her nose wrinkling, "Remember love, girls don't like to be stripped, it would probably be for the best if you didn't use any of the Dying Will Bullets in a public place," she advised.

"I'll bare that in mind, but no promises."

_**000**_

**I hope you guys liked this chapter, I tried to show you the other side of Tsuna, the one that she only let's very select people see of her, the one hiding behind the shield that the Disciplinary Committee provides. If people were wondering about how she was even able to land a hit on Reborn in the last chapter, this explains it, he ****let**** her, all the while juggling a sniper rifle that probably weighed more than he did.**

**Introducing Yume, the reason why Hibari likes cute things and has a soft-spot for I-pin. Small children and animals, if he weren't such a badass I'm fairly sure people would call him a tree hugging pussy. XDDD**

**Ah yes, someone has very kindly donated some fanart for this, please check my DeviantART favourites for it, I'll also be posting some pictures but for now they are waiting in my sketch book because its midnight and I have an early start tomorrow. Ergo, I shall be posting this immediately and then heading to bed. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and those who have left constructive crit – thank you really so much. If it helps me improve my writing then I don't care how hard you tear me to shreds.**

**Special thanks to those constructive crit-ers: **gracefulsunshine, Iron Dragon Maiden, **and** Dante96 **for helping me with my writing. And thank you to everyone who has been thoughtful enough to correct my flawed knowledge of the Canon.**

**Also, a special thanks and 'arrrggh – must you make this choice so difficult?' for **Iali10** who came up with some lovely arguments and scenarios for Tsuna/various Varia (Bel and Squalo), I've copied and pasted it on the bottom of the Chapter, please read through and give me your thoughts on her arguments and on mine which will be there as well.**

**Please enjoy the next chapter.**

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Dinner was a simple stir-fry and side of rice as, despite being left to his own devices while his parents were away for the majority of his life, Hibari-senpai's cooking abilities were fairly substandard and he didn't want to risk giving his sister food poisoning by experimenting. Tsuna snickered all the while as she made her way home when she thought about his confusion over her explaining how to make a proper stir-fry sauce that didn't come out of a packet brought at the local Convenience. At least tomorrow Yume's care-taker would be back, she was more than happy to cook for both her charge and her brother when both parents were away on business.

By the time Tsuna had returned to her house, the lights were all out save for the porch, indicating that her mother had gone to sleep before her return. Which was fair enough, it was rather late. Making her way inside, she kicked off her shoes and turned the porch light off before making her way upstairs to her room. She had _almost_ forgotten about the strange baby, but almost wasn't entirely, so her hesitancy before entering her own bedroom was justified in her opinion. She was about to make the biggest decision of her life a reality, not just discuss it as she had done with Tetsuya and Hibari over dinner some two hours ago.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door open and flicked her light-switch on upon discovering it dark inside, illuminating the small but neat bedroom. Unlike her mother who favoured some what cluttered floral femininity and frippery, Tsuna had kept her room warm but functional. The walls were a soft cream orange colour, her bedspread was white, it was obviously a girl's room, little bits and pieces here and there clearly signifying that, remove those though and it could be entirely gender neutral. The only unnatural things in the room were the splinters of broken pencil on the floor, her text books littering her desk, her blazer tossed casually over the end of her bed and the far corner of her room next to her desk. The corner that Reborn had apparently decided to claim as his own if the little hammock he was currently snoozing in was any indication. She stepped forward and paused before moving her foot to the left and bending down to double check what she _thought_ she had just seen.

A slight glint of light reflecting off it was her only clue, delicate touches with her fingertips confirmed it. The baby, Reborn, had set up trip wires across her bedroom floor and... tracking them to the sides, affixed them to a set of grenades!

The colour drained from her face a moment before she shot the infant an utterly horrified glance. Shaking herself she swallowed back her alarm and pondered how to deal with this. Reaching over to her little vanity table, she took her nail scissors and began to snip the thin nylon wires that threaded across her bedroom floor like a spider's web. Ensuring that there was nothing else in the way of nasty surprises waiting for her as she gathered up her night clothes and stepped out to go and change in the bathroom, grumbling all the while about space invasions and creepy infants. When she came back in, she very nearly tripped over another wire, it was only the fact that she stumbled over the hems of her own pyjama trousers that prevented her from triggering the reset grenade traps.

That little... he reset them while she was getting changed!

She glared at the infant before glancing at the clock and deciding it was entirely too late to be scolding him about this, she still had to get up early in the morning for her Duties. Shaking the matter off, Tsuna delicately picked her way through the net of trip-wires before crawling onto the bed, taking her blazer and tossing it over the back of her chair and burrowing her way down under the covers.

Sleep didn't come immediately as the sounds of Reborn's soft breaths kept her distracted but the exhaustion of the emotional roller coaster the day had been wouldn't let that keep her up for very long. Tsuna was asleep barely twenty minutes after bundling herself up on her bed covers.

Completely oblivious to the small, approving smirk that curled on the baby Mafioso's lips.

**KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR**

She was exhausted, but she wouldn't let that affect her as she went through the usual morning ritual of making her bento, eating breakfast and being escorted to the school by Kusakabe Tetsuya who seemed surprised that she was as on time as always. She waved his concern off, she needed some normalcy right now and the mundane opening of the school was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Normalcy went right out of the window when, as she was doing her morning rounds checking for damages and thefts through the classrooms, a harsh impacted to the back of her head sent her flying forward and down half a flight of stairs.

Crying out both in surprise and pain, the brunette twisted and got her legs under her, coming to a stop, her head ringing as she looked up with blurry eyes, blinking and shaking her head to clear it as a shadow approached. Mochida eventually swam into focus, glaring at her from the top of the stairs, strange looking _Shinai_ in hand. Her head throbbed at the sight of it and she scowled.

"Sawada Tsunayuki of class 1C, I challenge you to a Duel of Honour," the senior commanded, making the girl scoff.

"A duel of honour? You just tried to push me down a flight of stairs!" she snarled furiously, "Go to hell."

He continued as if she hadn't spoken, "The prize of the Duel is Sasagawa Kyoko," he declared making the younger girl pause, the hairs on her arms rising.

"Prize?" she repeated, "What do you mean by '_prize_'?" she demanded, a distinct feeling of nausea rising in her stomach.

He smirked, "Exactly what I said. The winner of our Duel gets Sasagawa Kyoko to do with as they see fit."

Tsuna saw red, "Kyoko-chan is _not_ a possession! Where are are we fighting?" she barked, someone dearly needed to teach this punk some fucking manners. Her head throbbed in agreement as her vision span unsteadily.

"The Gym at Lunch time, don't be late." And with that, the black haired Senior marched off, superior smirk playing on his lips while Tsuna watched him go, stewing in anger and pain as she got shakily to her feet, wincing slightly as her knees flexed and her sense of balance wavered drastically. Glancing down she could already see the bruises forming up and down her shins and knees, her arms were probably no better and she could already feel the goose-egg on the back of her head. Underhanded sneaky bastard.

"You could have handled that better." Tsuna squeaked practically launching herself a few steps further up at the sudden voice speaking from the window-sill behind her. Whipping around, she relaxed slightly at the sight of the pint-sized Mafioso watching her, then his words registered, somehow, through the strange haze that was settling down around her brain.

She flushed slightly and folded her arms, "I could have. But right now, I don't much care. If I hadn't accepted he would have claimed he won by default and that Kyoko-chan then belonged to him." She shook her head, tapping the toe of her shoe on the floor, "She isn't a thing, a possession or property to be passed around to the biggest pair of muscles without a care for her feelings in the matter. Mochida needs to be taken down a peg or two, conventional punishments like Detention and Suspension aren't going to work with him at this point," she explained, biting on a thumb nail as she studied one of the poster boards to her right.

"How do you know that?" Reborn asked, drawing her out of her thoughts. The girl looked at him in askance, eyes dilating and narrowing as she tried to focus, "How do you know that Detention and Suspension aren't going to work?" he repeated, carefully stopping himself from shifting a touch guiltily as he noted the signs of a concussion. Perhaps he shouldn't have shot her in the back of the head with that heavy-duty rubber bullet when he saw Mochida approaching from the other end of the corridor.

Realisation cleared her face, "Detention only affects those who care about their Academic Records. Mochida has one care in the world and that's Kendo, its one of the only things he will work to the point of injury for. Suspension just means a holiday and more time for personal training. His attitude right now is a complete disregard for authority. He knows that I can get him both in Detention and Suspended for the foreseeable future and yet he was willing to try and give me a concussion and send me down a flight of stairs. That's attempted murder, this is beyond school level," she explained with a shake of her head, concern and anxiousness twisting her face. She had obviously not realised that the strike to her head was Reborn's doing, "The fact that he's also setting this Duel for lunch time is a source of worry. Once he's cleared up and decreed his win for Kyoko-chan, that leaves him an unlimited window of opportunity in the afternoon and after school to force his presence on her."

Reborn hummed, "Is that just theology or are you speaking from experience?" the tiny hitman asked.

Tsuna sighed and rubbed at her throbbing elbows, "Me personally, no, but Tetsuya-kun warned me about an incident he had to take care of recently involving one of Mochida's Kohai and a girl from a different school. He claimed that Mochida had been encouraging his behaviour when questioned." She made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat as she gingerly explored the bump on her head, she should have listened to him when he told her to be wary of the Kendo Captain – he wasn't one to take a blow to the pride lying down.

"So you're legitimately worried about Sasagawa-san?" Reborn asked curiously.

Tsuna nodded, "Until I joined the Disciplinary Committee, she was my _only_ friend. We keep it quiet these days so people who're angry at me won't pick on her though," she explained before looking up as the bell went, "I had better be going, Hibari-senpai will want to know about this so he can ensure its above the bar," she muttered before giving Reborn a brief wave and moving off.

Meanwhile, the little assassin decided to do some reconnaissance regarding Sasagawa Kyoko and Mochida Shinobu.

**KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR**

Hibari was furious when she broke the news, not at the fact she had been hurt, more over the fact that a Herbivore was trying to upset the food chain of Namimori. Tsuna tried not to roll her eyes but she was rather unsuccessful as she shakily made her way out of the Disciplinary Office and headed to class, Kyoko-chan still had to be told.

She didn't get a chance to tell the caramel haired girl before Kurokawa Hana had already blurted out the news, having read it off her facebook – one of her friends posting about how Mochida was bragging about it in class. Kyoko wasn't happy, she tried to make Tsuna promise not to fight, almost hysterically, shaking her by the shoulders and making Tsuna's vision swim and flash with lights. She knew the poor girl was traumatised by that time she was used against her brother and he ended up hospitalised but, this was different. Mochida didn't want to beat Tsuna up, well, he did, but he wanted to keep _Kyoko_ like some kind of pet and that was unacceptable.

"Kyoko-chan, I'm not helpless," she told her friend, drawing her into a hug, ignoring the looks of her classmates. "This isn't primary school. Mochida needs to be taught a lesson, he can't treat you like an object and I won't let him," she told her friend, pulling back and smiling as she avoided looking at either of the Kyoko's in front of her. Double vision, great, on top of the headache she had double vision. This wasn't good. "Besides, if he thinks this is going to be an easy win then he's in for a very unpleasant surprise."

Kyoko still looked pained but nodded none the less, she had been unfortunate enough to stumble on one of Tsuna and Hibari's '_spars_' promptly freaked out and tried to defend her friend from the usually violent Senior. It was only Tsuna's swift reaction in putting herself between Hibari and the girl that prevented her from being seriously injured. Her body more used to taking punishment than Kyoko's only suffered a bruised scapula instead of the broken collarbone that the other girl would have received.

"Alright but promise me that you won't get hurt?" she begged, "You've been my best friend for years, please, please don't, promise me Yu-chan," the caramel haired girl pleaded, hugging her tightly, unaware of the stirring of murmurs around the classroom at her declaration.

"I promise Ko-chan," Tsuna dutifully replied, squeezing her a little tighter than usual to hopefully reassure her.

Now all she had to do was kick Mochida's ass and hide the fact that she had, what she was beginning to think, was a concussion.

**KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR**

According to Iemitsu's information, Tsuna would have attempted to leave the school by now. According to Reborn's experience though, she was in the girl's toilets getting changed and washing her face in the hopes the cold water would help her focus. The little Hitman was already on stand-by with some heavy duty Paracetamol, which would hopefully downsize the risk of haemorrhaging and had sent an anonymous note to the head of the Disciplinary Committee who was in possession of a motorbike. If Tsuna blacked out at any point during or after the fight, he would be in a position to take her home where Reborn could drug her up to her eyeballs on painkillers and sleeping pills so she could recover.

If Honour weren't such a huge part of Mafia life then he would have advised Tsunayuki to ditch the fight in favour of recovering. However, when it came to slurs against the family, injuries would just have to be ignored while the insult was... _corrected._ With prejudice.

The Gym was already full to the gills with students and their Lunches, looking forward to a good fight. Members of the Disciplinary Committee and the Kendo Club were exchanging looks, circling each other like rival Wolf Packs as they waited for their respective Alphas to show up and give the word. Judging by the sour looks on various Kendo Club members faces, Tsuna and Hibari's plans for thwarting any underhanded tricks had pulled through, ensuring a fair match.

Reborn smirked slightly as he saw his reluctant student appear in the doors of the Gym, flanked by Hibari Kyoya and the Sasagawa siblings – the elder of which, Ryohei of the Boxing Club, was on his List of potential Guardians. Reborn currently liked him as the Sun Guardian for the similarities he saw between the Japanese teenager and the first Sun Guardian, Knuckle, described within the Primo's journals.

Hibari was currently giving every single member of the Kendo Club the evil eye, Reborn smirked at the already strong bond that Tsuna had with the Cloud and the Sun. From his research, he had concluded that Sasagawa Ryohei considered Tsuna another sister due to her long-standing friendship with Kyoko, even going so far as to beat on boys he knew had crushes on the oblivious brunette (He did wonder why the scarred teenager bothered, none of the boys involved had the necessary bravery to even approach the Left Hand of the Disciplinary Committee). Ryohei was looming behind the two girls with an unaccustomedly thunderous expression on his face as he too glared at the Kendo-Club members. His younger sister was clinging to Tsuna's arm, her face twisted with concern and anxiousness while her friend, clad in a P.E. Uniform of bike shorts and a white T-shirt, was looking serious and frighteningly composed.

Then Mochida Shinobu appeared, clad in his usual armour and hakama, that strange _Shinai_ in hand and a cocky smirk in place. One that faded rather sharply at the sight of Ryohei giving him a black look, Hibari's glacier sneer and the single condescending raised eyebrow on Sawada's face. Even Kyoko was glowering at him from where she was clinging to her bestfriend.

He stepped forward, a scowl hitching in place on his face as the girl stepped forward to face him, leaving her friends on the sidelines. Reborn readied the Dying Will Bullet, just in case, though he doubted if his Student would need it for this fight.

"This'll be a simple Duel, even for a total novice like you," the dark haired Senior declared, pointing his strange _Shinai_ at the girl. Tsuna frowned as she eyed it, it looked like it was almost metal. "Seeing as, despite your inexperience with Kendo, you're well versed in Street Fighting, you will have to gain three _Ippon_ against me to win. If you cannot, then victory is mine, as is Sa- ." He looked as though he were going to finish that sentence but one glance at Sasagawa Ryohei made him clam up tighter than a virgin in a Red Light District. He coughed and gestured one of his Kohai over, handing over his metal _Shinai_ and accepting one of the regular bamboo ones they provided. A second bamboo _Shinai_ being presented to the brunette who giving it an almost pouty look, accepted and began to test its weight. It was a little different from the pipes and crowbars she sometimes used, but not overly, she could work with this.

Mochida nodded curtly when she finished familiarising herself with the item, "The regular rules will have to be thrown out of the window for this match given how you're unaware of them. Whoever lands three hits first, wins, everything else goes," he told her, settling himself into a ready position, _Shinai_ held before him in a two handed grip.

Tsuna's eyebrow shot up at his declaration, _everything goes_ huh? She could live with that, though Mochida had best be prepared to get ki- no, she would do this with the _Shinai_ entirely. Turning to the side and holding her _Shinai_ in front of her, she saw Mochida's eyebrows shoot up at the almost European style Fencing position she took. She then nodded to show she was ready.

"Begin!" the referee, a member of the Gardening Club that Tetsuya-kun had dug up to act as an impartial judge, commanded, lifting both flags. Red for Tsuna, white for Mochida.

Say whatever you liked about Mochida's personality, his misogany, his arrogance, duplicity and stupidity, either way, he knew how to handle a sword. If Tsuna weren't used to people coming at her with weapons, she was fairly certain she would have lost immediately as the dark haired Senior lunged at her, ferociously fast and with surprising power. However, regardless of his power, Tsuna was still _faster_.

She twisted, ducking under his overhead strike and running her _Shinai_ against the Senior's stomach, under his guard as she darted around him and took her stance again.

"Point to Sawada!" the referee called, lifting the red flag to the noisy approval of various students and the visible ire of Mochida and the Kendo Club.

He spun and came at her again, this time not leading any holes in his guard that she could exploit. She darted out of reach again, leading him in a circle, keeping half of her awareness on his eyes – he telegraphed where he was attacking with them – and half an eye on his feet, ready for when he moved just right. In a regular Kendo match, no doubt he was one of the best, but Tsuna was used to street fights, no holds barred, she had the clear advantage here even after forbidding herself from using anything _but_ the _Shinai _because she wasn't looking to win points or strike in designated areas in predetermined and legal manoeuvres.

Really, Mochida was good, but he was nothing in comparison to the Disciplinary Committee.

_There_, he made the mistake of crossing one foot in front of the other as he moved.

She lunged.

Mochida's eyes widened as he reflexively tried to step back only to stumble over his own feet and baggy Hakama, arms lifting and opening as he tried to catch his balance. He realised his error too late to save himself as Tsuna's _Shinai_ impacted painfully in his stomach, bending him double as all the air was forced out of his lungs. He could even feel his lunch threatening to launch its way up his throat.

Tsuna gave him no opportunity to recover as she twisted around him so he couldn't bat at her with his _Shinai_, which he did anyway and caught her on the ankle. The referee calling both a Point for her and a Point for him right before she brought her _Shinai_ over her head and brought it down in a devastating blow across his back.

The dark haired Senior groaned as the blow sent him to the floor, the blow knocking his lungs back into working order and making him swallow a mouthful of air and choke as the referee called:

"Point to Sawada. Final call, Three Points Sawada, One Point Mochida. Sawada wins!"

The Gym erupted in cheers as the Kendo Club members rushed to their Captain as he shakily got back to his feet, eyeing the brunette as she dropped her _Shinai_ and pressed a hand against her forehead as if pained. She still managed to smile and hug Kyoko-chan when the enthusiastic caramel haired girl practically flew over and tackle-glomped her. He found it odd that he didn't feel jealous at the blatant show of favouritism.

Tsuna leaned against her friend, "Ko-chan, I need to sit down, somewhere quiet," she pleaded under her breath.

She'd held it together pretty well during the fight but now everything was spinning, she was seeing double, the lights were painful and her ears were ringing so loud it was actually hurting her now. The headache she had possessed when walking into the Gym was now reaching monolithic proportions and she was rather frightened she was about to faint in front of everyone. That wouldn't be good.

Sensing that something wasn't right, Kyoko-chan nodded and quickly gestured to her brother and to Hibari-senpai whom she knew took care of all of his subordinates. The group of four left the Gym for quieter locations as the rest of the student body practically rioted around them, only the Disciplinary Committee who were present for the fight preventing them from stampeding after their Boss and Princess.

Unfortunately, Tsuna ended up passing out the moment the noise level dropped a significant level, her legs stumbling as her eyes rolled back. She crumpled there and then, Kyoko squeaking as she was almost dragged down along with her.

**KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR**

Reborn adjusted his hat, watching the girl sleeping peacefully on her bed.

After she had passed out, Ryohei carried her down to the nurse's office where she was diagnosed with a Concussion. The woman was rather furious that she hadn't approached her earlier in the day but subsided when Hibari glared at her and explained that Sawada-san had more important things to handle at the time. After that, a quick call to Nana to tell her what happened, Ryohei gathered up his surrogate younger sister and told Hibari that he would make sure she got home alright. Scowling unhappily at the perceived bunking off, and even more so at the insinuation that he was unable to care for his own subordinates, the dark haired teenager had been about to argue when Tetsuya let himself in and informed his Boss that the student body were getting too out of hand in the aftermath of the fight.

Face more thunderous than ever, Hibari gave one last glance at Tsuna before following the regent-haired teenager out of the office.

After getting her home and putting her upstairs, Nana had offered him a drink and a meal as he had given up his time to bring her daughter home. He happily accepted while the woman went upstairs to see to her daughter, getting her out of her uniform and into pyjamas before tucking her in bed where she would be more comfortable.

She woke up once, long enough to swallow the painkillers Reborn offered her and take a sip of water before she was under again.

Reborn kept a vigil all the while, plotting.

Already she had two potential Guardians in Sasagawa Ryohei and Hibari Kyoya, another _potential-potential_ Guardian in Kusakabe Tetsuya (Lightning, maybe?). But that did not assist him with the other Guardian selections. He hummed under his breath as he mechanically disassembled his guns and cleaned them, the smell of polish and metal coupled with the familiar motions relaxing him and allowing him to focus. There was always Bianchi's younger brother, she had made comments on how similar he was in attitude to a young G from the Primo's Journals, she giggled about it all the while, apparently they even had the same hair-style. Though Reborn had it on good authority that young Gokudera Hayato had copied said hair-style from his former home tutor, Trident Shamal, a man he greatly respected who taught him how to use the mid-range dynamite that were his signature weapon.

Yes... Hayato would be a good Guardian if Tsunayuki could win his loyalty. Young Hayato had difficulties with the Mafia, his temperament too wild, too difficult for many to handle, just like a Storm. He chuckled, he would make a very good Storm Guardian for his Student, possibly even a Right Hand Man? Goodness knew how neither Tsuna nor Hibari would be able to maintain that kind of relationship having been on the opposite ends of the spectrum for entirely too long. Now, how to introduce them... He glanced down at the girl, still out cold on the bed, fingers flexing thoughtfully on her blankets as she dreamed.

And smirked.

**KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR**

**And how do you like my update? 8D**

**Below is the Review from **Iali10** who gave me some lovely arguments for and against various pairings. I want your thoughts on them because I... My headcanon of Dino/Tsuna is eyeing up the contenders and puffing itself up like a defensive kitten. Cute. Abominably cute, but also very evil. And sharp – kitten claws and teeth are sharper than adults, they just lack the strength that would make them really dangerous.**

This story's pretty good :). I hope Tsuna can find it in herself to relax enough to be herself around Reborn; I'm not pushing for R27 in any way, but those two always had an affectionate (if sadistic on Reborn's part) relationship based off mutual faith in one another. It's kind of hard to define, but I guess it's kind of like sadistic!uncle/teased!nephew (or niece in this case)? Nope, still not it exactly... whatever, it's just cute XD. **I completely agree with this. XDDD Don't worry, Reborn and Tsuna will still be very close, they just won't be romantically involved. Ever.**

As for pairings in this fic... If Tsuna is not going to end up with a guardian due to professionalism, I don't think she would date a fellow boss either. They could be friends, but anything else would be too complicated since they  
would still need to be able to conduct themselves in a business-like situation. That would remove Dino and Enma from possible choices for romance in this fic. **I have been agonising over this a touch, but Alliances based on marriage aren't uncommon from what I've ****heard****. I could be wrong, if anyone is actually in the Mafia (Snrk) then please feel free to drop me a line and say yay or nay regarding this. Then of course be prepared to be peppered with questions so I can improve on this.**

Let's see... Spanner and Irie eventually become subordinates, so they're out. Ken and Chikusa are not members of Vongola so they're possible choices; though that would be a difficult relationship, given their hate for all things Mafia  
and Ken's delinquent behavior. Basil is in her age group and very sweet, but I doubt she'll handle the fact that he was taught and cared for by her absent father very well. **Basil... That's going to be a thorny issue later on. I'm not looking forward to writing that. XP**

The Varia are not really considered to be subordinates simply because they refuse to accept her as THIER boss. Even 10 years later they declare themselves to be under the 9th boss rather than Tsuna. You stated no SqualoTsuna, but that would be an amusing relationship kind of like Lal Mirch and Colonello. The woman kicking around the man to keep them in line, but with a sense of affection in their actions? There would definetly be some violence, but Squalo would try in his own weird way to be a good boyfriend (though he'd fail or make things worse, but it's the thought that counts right?). **I can see it, but there's also Squalo's loyalties to Xanxus we have to factor in. If Xanxus isn't approving of their relationship – which I doubt he will be – then Squalo isn't going to go against him because that's how fanatical about his loyalty he is. I do find it funny that he's the Sanest man in the Varia, its pairing the Sanest man in Varia with the Sanest Woman in the Vongola. **

I think BelTsuna would actually have minimal violence (and I think he's 16 or 17 which puts him in her age bracket) and mostly on Tsuna's part simply because Bel would annoy her at times. I don't think she'd appreciate being called, or treated like, a princess, and Bel would court her in a bizzare prince-ly fashion. Maybe he would leave useless gifts for her that she doesn't want, but would then do something kind of thoughtful and considerate and she'll have a moment of weakness where she would think he was not TOO bad. And then he would remind her why she doesn't like him. Lots and lots of teasing and perverted humor (and Tsuna attempting to punch him in the face and it  
being considered some weird kind of fore-play). **Gah, I cannot see a reason why this ****wouldn't**** be possible beyond the whole Varia thing and what he does to Gokudera during the Ring Arc. Bel is loyal to Xanxus but only to a degree, he sticks around out of mainly the chance to legitimately kill things and because he's surrounded by strength and the Prince should always be surrounded by such things. **

I can't imagine XanxusTsuna without violence... It would take a few years before Xanxus would ever come to respect Tsuna enough to not treat her like trash, and even then there would still be many explosive arguments simply because Xanxus has a incredibly short fuse. I don't know, I just feel that the changes you've made in Tsuna's character make this pairing difficult. They would butt heads too often for this to work, or at least I think so... I don't know, it's your fic, so you might figure out a way for it to work. **Agreed. Apart from really awesome Hate/Make-up sex, there's not going to be a relationship beyond trying to kill each other in this.**

I guess my vote for the pairing of this fic would between BeltTsuna, SqualoTsuna, or ChikusaTsuna (just because I haven't seen that pairing ever done before XD). This is only my opinnion, so feel free to disregard it :).

Good luck with the rest of the fic, and I can't wait for the next chapter!

**What does everyone else think? Dino and Bel are having a bit of a scrap in my head over it. I like them both for her (given how my brain has already decided Tsuna has a thing for blondes both could work XDD).**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Great Pairing debate continues. Everyone's cast their votes but again, some of you have given me some very good arguments for and against: **Wishyuki, Aoi24, aerin02, Iali10, iluvtootsie **who read some articles and informed me that Alliances were not uncommon, **svarra** for explaining how those alliances would work, **Magical. **for suggesting the interesting pairings of Tsuna/Kyoko or Haru, sadly, I can't see them happening, Haru would be annoying and Kyoko is already practically her sister.**

**Again, thanks to everyone who Reviewed to share their thoughts and opinions. The Great Debate shall, of course, continue. But I would like to ****reiterate**** that Tsunayuki will not be paired with any of her Guardians or Reborn and to be perfectly honest, it won't be a main part of the story, it'll just add some spice and character interaction amusement. Now, on with the chapter.**

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Tsuna was off school for the next three days, Reborn drugging her up with Paracetamol and sleeping pills after she woke up to have a bit of soup and rice and visit the bathroom. The only cure for a Concussion was to rest really and the less she exacerbated her condition the faster she would recover, and the Duel against Mochida had certainly not helped her in the least. If the girl's mother, Nana, had been surprised by the number of rather hard faced Delinquents who dropped by to ask after her, Reborn didn't see it.

Kyoko and her brother Ryohei were over every evening, right after school to see if she was alright.

Most of the time she was sleeping but Kyoko kindly left homework for her to finish and explained that the whole school knew that she had fought Mochida with a concussion and still won. Some claimed it was a lie until they realised, hang on, Sawada hasn't been seen at school since the fight during Lunch time and none of the Teachers seem surprised or concerned. The fact that the '_prize_' of the fight had become public as well and Mochida Shinobu's reputation was in complete rags while Tsunayuki had become just as much of an Idol as her bestfriend, despite her role as the Left Hand of the Disciplinary Committee.

Reborn smirked, contemplating the situation as he idly consumed his breakfast, watching the young girl in question as she puttered around the kitchen preparing her Lunch. If anything, her position as a Prefect had netted her more than a few admirers amidst the Delinquents themselves, the ones not terrified of her at any rate. It wasn't just Kyoko-chan's eyes when she noticed a sudden increase of suspicious characters in the uniforms of other schools lingering in the Namimori Chuu area. Hibari was not pleased.

It would be amusing to see if those teenage delinquents would actually scrape up the stones to approach the young girl, and what Gokudera-kun would do to them when he found out. Thinking on it, he should have already arrived and gone through the registration processes to become a student at Namimori Chuu – the Vongola Solicitors were nothing if not both efficient and _fast_.

Today was going to be his first day if Bianchi was correct.

_**000**_

Returning to school was a little surreal for Tsuna. The mornings passed as they usually did, walking with Tetsuya-kun, greeting the other boys, doing her rounds, amending the records, assessing the Teacher reports – there was a little bit of a backlog in the filing, clearly Hibari had been busy without her pointing him to what needed doing. She sighed and made a mental note to perhaps talk Kurokawa-san into interning with the Disciplinary Committee, she certainly had enough ruthlessness to make the cut even if she had next to no combat abilities – that would change, and quickly.

It only started getting strange when she reached the Gates to await Hibari-san.

She noticed several individuals from different schools lurking in the area, all of them possessing that look, the one she was familiar with – Delinquents. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to be getting a visible respect from the other students, boys would bow and greet her as they came in, one or two flushed and awkward looking as they did so, girls would giggle and call out cheerful good mornings to Sawada-chan, one of the Kendo Club members actually got onto his hands and knees, begging for forgiveness. She was so startled that she didn't notice Hibari come up behind her until he threatened to bite the other teenager to death if he didn't cease disrupting the Disciplinary Committee in their duties.

At least in class things were normal enough, Tsunayuki sighed as she stepped into Maths a good half an hour late – as per usual in the mornings and afternoons. Nezu-sensei didn't even try to reprimand her as he continued with his lecture, Tsuna resolved to get hold of Kyoko's notes so she could study up later that night, knowing Nezu he would undoubtedly hold a test of some sort tomorrow or in a few days just to have an excuse to rag on various students. Her especially. However, she always maintained a C-average, now with Reborn hovering over her shoulder she was having to put more work in to reach a B-average otherwise he would begin to motivate her in areas other than Mafia studies – and his idea of motivation involved guns.

The new face in class didn't warrant more than a curious glance as she took her seat, idly wondering if she was going to have to deliver an ultimatum on that silver hair of his – Hibari took offence at unusual hair colours, you had to prove it was natural before he would leave you be. She preferred not to be present when those examinations took place, that was something she didn't want to witness until she was much older and in a committed relationship. His uniform wasn't against the rules per-say, there were no uniform rules in complete honesty, just something of an unwritten agreement that students wore the uniforms to uphold the honour of the school.

Class passed without incident and pretty soon, Tsuna was escaping out onto the school grounds as the attention from her peers became overwhelming, she could handle being ignored or glared at but this... over-familiarity and friendliness was making her anxious. She was unsteady, thrown off. The brunette sighed, tugging on a strand of hair as she observed the students milling around through the windows.

"Little Miss Popular, pfft, pathetic," sneered a male voice behind her.

Tsuna tensed a little, not having noticed someone there before she turned and looked over her shoulder with cool eyes, "Gokudera Hayato," she greeted calmly, eyes flicking downward before she faced him fully, "Smoking on school grounds is prohibited. I must ask you to stub the cigarette out please," she informed him.

The silver haired teenager's lip curled in disgust, eyeing her up an down, gauging her and judging by the look in his eyes, deeming her lacking. She bristled a little, after the realisation that her own father thought her worthless she had become more sensitive to others deeming her as inferior, good for nothing, useless, in truth, to be considered as nothing more than a Breeding Mare had _really_ hurt what small grain of pride she had.

"If a little poodle like you becomes the Decima, the Vongola's finished," he retorted as if she hadn't spoken, pointedly taking a long, mocking drag on the cancer stick between his lips. Her eyes narrowed as he gritted his teeth around the filter, "I refuse to accept it," he growled, glaring at her, "I'm the one who's to be the Decimo."

Tsuna tilted her head, "So you're Xanxus," she decided, there was only one other Candidate as the Tenth Head of the Vongola she was aware of, the other three were dead to the best of her awareness. "That makes things easier," she murmured, hair obscuring her features and the expression that curled briefly on her features.

"You're a nuisance," the Italian growled, lifting something to his mouth, a brief poufing sound heralding an ominous sizzling sound that was more reminiscent of fireworks than anything else that Tsuna was familiar with. Indeed, looking up at the other teenager, she could see what was most definitely what appeared to be bombs in his hands. "You'll die, right here, right now, Princess," he told her scornfully, flicking the explosives toward her.

Brown eyes widened.

Did that _idiot_ just throw _explosives_ at her in the middle of a School?

Her hands shot out almost faster than the thought of what to do registered, she cried out in pain, gritting her teeth as her hands clamped down on the fuses, smothering them with her skin. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as she dropped the two weapons, hissing painfully through her teeth as she examined her burnt palms, not noticing the brief look of startled horror on Gokudera-san's face. Those were second degree burns, not nice, not nice at all and they were definitely going to scar.

"You came earlier than I expected, Gokudera Hayato."

The Left Hand of the Disciplinary Committee looked up through her fringe and glowered at the Mafia infant, "Why am I not surprised you have your fingers in this latest upset to my orderly life?" she questioned harshly, forcing herself to straighten up and stop trembling, telling herself that it _didn't hurt _and she needed to _stop acting like such a fucking herbivore_.

Reborn smirked at her, "You are attaining wisdom," he told her.

"Can I wisdom your face into that wall with my foot?" was the sarcastic retort, sassy enough to nearly make the Arcobaleno laugh.

"No."

"Shame," the girl muttered before turning to the other boy, who stiffened as if realising what was coming, whatever she was about to say was cut off by the infant Mafioso, much to her visible frustration as she shot him a vicious glare.

"This is Gokudera Hayato, a member of the Family that I called from Italy. Its said that he can conceal countless of explosive devices upon his person, his Assassination Alias is '_Smokin' Bomb Hayato_'. Impressive, no?" the baby decided, it took him considerably longer to obtain his first Epithet, though he did join the game much later than Gokudera had done and during a time when information was harder to distribute – what with the Internet and applications such as Facebook not yet having been invented.

"No," Tsuna retorted coldly, making the silver haired teenager twitch and Reborn to arch an eyebrow.

"No?"

"No," the girl confirmed, turning to glare at the silver haired teenager, "All he's done so far is piss me the hell off by throwing dynamite around a school filled with non-combatants and innocents. I've sent people to the Emergency Room for things less stupid," she sneered scornfully, shifting her weight and looking down her nose at the other teenager who stiffened further.

"You're not kidding," the silver haired teenager began, looking over at Reborn, trembling ever so slightly like a volcano desperately trying not to erupt, "about my becoming a Candidate for Successor if I kill Sawada, right?" he asked the infant gruffly. Really, she should have expected some kind of underhanded test like this, though if Reborn really wanted to test her he should have called for someone stronger.

"That's right," the infant confirmed, "Let the slaughter commence."

"Die!" the boy roared, whirling around and lunging at the teenage girl only to have his face meet with her foot a split second later. He gagged as he actually swallowed his cigarette and staggered backwards, his cheeks promptly flushing red when he realised... Sawada wasn't wearing shorts under her skirt and he just... when she kicked him, he...

"I didn't kick you hard enough to break your nose," the girl deadpanned as he tried desperately to stem the bleeding from his nostrils, Reborn fighting hard not to start laughing from where he was sat observing what was sure to be a very interesting fight.

Gokudera growled under his breath and yanked out several explosives, feeling more than just a stab of satisfaction when the girl's eyes widened, "Take this!" he howled, flinging them forward, fuses sizzling. If the girl was surprised by how fast he was able to gather more cigarettes and light them to launch this assault, she didn't show it, even if she was completely disgusted by how many of them he currently had between his teeth.

Horror turned Tsunayuki's veins to ice, '_There's no way I can put them all out in time! He's going to bring the Science Block down and all the Gas Pipes in side! The school'll blow itself to high heaven – along with everyone inside!_'

Reborn smiled, seeing his opportunity, "Fight with a Dying Will," he commanded, Leon morphing in his hand a split second before his shot tore the air and Tsuna jerked backwards, blood spurting from her forehead as the Vongola Dying Will Bullet found its mark, right in her third eye. Her body hit the ground and split open, orange flames licking the air as the girl, now clad only in her underwear, launched herself out of the tattered remains of her clothing, a crest of flame lighting her forehead and marking the entry point of the Dying Will Bullet.

"REBORN! DEFUSE THE BOMBS WITH MY DYING WILL!" she screamed, heedless to the burst of blood from her '_opponent_' as he choked on his cigarettes, blood streaming from his nose, Tsuna launched herself forward grabbing each fuse and snuffing it out with her bare hands.

The Arcobaleno smiled as Gokudera panicked and threw more, the girl darting through the deadly rain with the grace of a dancer, hands lashing out and grasping the burning fuses as quickly as they came. Even the ones that littered around Gokudera himself as he fumbled his weapons in a mixture of embarrassment, shock and fear. The girl spared none of them, grasping each fuse and snuffing it with her now thoroughly burnt hands.

She fell to her knees, panting as the flame diminished upon her forehead, her body buzzed and trembled with adrenaline from the desperate scramble to defuse all the explosives before they went off and blew Namimori to rubble.

"I- I was wrong!" the Italian raised teenager exclaimed, falling to his hands and knees in front of her, "Its you who is fit to become the Decima!" he yelled, looking up at her with the utmost awe and admiration on his face, "Decima, I will follow you! Command me to do anything!" he pleaded. "I never had any plans on becoming the Tenth but I – OW!"

Gokudera fell forward, smashing his nose on the pavement as Tsuna's fist slammed into the top of his head, "Do you have any idea how many people you nearly killed?" the girl demanded, glaring at him, completely ignorant to her naked state. "This is the Science Block you idiot! There are Gas-Pipes everywhere in the structure, if one of those Dynamite went off and caught it, it would make a chain reaction that would destroy this school and every building within eight hundred yards of it!" she roared, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and shaking him roughly. "Do you not think before you pick a fight? You could have died as well you stupid Fire-cracker Maniac!"

It was exceptionally difficult for Gokudera not to notice her practically naked state, or the fact that in shaking him her chest was doing some very interesting and some _damn_ painful things to watch. Very painful as blood erupted from his nose and she realised just what the problem was and screamed, scrambling backwards to where her uniform was discarded on the floor, face tomato with horror and confusion.

"W-wha-what, what the hell?" she cried, gathering up her clothes and struggling to drag them all on at once while using them as a shield to cover as much of herself as possible.

"Oh no, oh no, looks like these guys are cutting class!" a male voice exclaimed in malicious delight, "Hey girlie, you'll have to pay the toll, why don't you come over here and play with us?"

Tsuna could feel tears prickling at the corners of her eyes as the Senpais eyed her up like a piece of meat, clearly not recognising her with her less than pristine appearance and her hair down, she gritted her teeth as she felt that familiar surge of anger in the face of fear. Anger was safer than fear, she preferred it because anger spurned her into defending herself. She shifted, preparing to throw aside her clothing and kick their asses in just her underwear before a pale arm snapped out, stopping her.

"Sit tight, Decima, I'll deal with this," Gokudera growled, getting to his feet and shrugging out of his shirt, tossing it over her before cracking his knuckles and moving forward to deal with the trash that dared eye up his Boss like some common street Harlot. There was going to be blood when he got finished with them.

Today had definitely been a very strange day.

_**000**_

"It is called the Dying Will Bullet, its a speciality of the Vongola Family."

Tsuna glared at the Acrobaleno, looking distinctly like she was drowning in Gokudera's shirt, her own having been torn to pieces during her rebirth under the Dying Will Bullet, "That doesn't tell me anything," she hissed venomously and Reborn tried not to recall Bianchi's warning about how girls really didn't like being publicly stripped. The only reason he had thus far avoided becoming a physical object of ire was most likely the fact that if it hadn't been for the Bullet then Namimori Chuu would have been demolished and Gokudera had dealt with the Senpai neatly and viciously. Her reputation was still unsullied, even if she was still embarrassed over having been forced to display herself not only to him but also to the other teenager.

"They are a special bullet made by Leon that turn all the safety switches off in the human brain, it stores energy and releases it in a torrent during a five minute interval. Unfortunately, due to the sudden rush of power, one's clothing does tend to be destroyed, however the boost of physical strength, speed and endurance is often worth more than a little humiliation. Especially when used in life threatening circumstances, right?" the Arcobaleno explained, smiling teasingly as the fourteen year old girl's cheeks flushed angrily and she found herself unable to argue back. If he hadn't shot her with it the Science Block would have blown and all three of them plus Namimori Chuu would have been dead. She hated it when he used logic to win arguments, it meant that she couldn't retort without sounding childish.

"Just... don't shoot me with it again," she grumbled, using the ruined remain of her shirt to mop the blood on her forehead away.

"I make no promises," the Mafioso told her, making her wrinkle her nose and pout. "I fail to see why you are getting upset though, isn't one of the more severe punishments for female troublemakers to strip them of their clothing?" he asked.

Tsuna glowered at him, "Its somewhat different. I only take their underwear, they keep their clothes, true its soaking wet but they have the choice and the whole incident takes place in the girl's bathroom or the changing rooms where no one but girls can witness it. I'm not mean enough to make that kind of public spectacle of them, its a punishment, not outright humiliation."

"You feel that the Dying Will Bullet is public humiliation?" Reborn asked, curious about the girl's opinion, he would have thought she would have been grateful for being able to defuse the bombs. Were girls more concerned with their reputations than their lives?

Gokudera snorted and gave Tsuna a look, "You've got nothing to be humiliated over, Decima," he told her, a little flushed and studiously avoiding eye contact as he looked at a point over her left shoulder. Tsuna's faced tomatoed and it looked like she was seriously considering the ramifications of decking either him or Reborn before she got to her feet.

"I have to get to class," she muttered, quickly hurrying off.

The two males watched her hurry away before exchanging glances, "She is still new to the Mafia world, take care of her. She has great potential," Reborn told the new Storm Guardian, watching in amusement as the silver haired fourteen year old nodded and almost seemed to jump to attention.

"Will do, Reborn-san! You can count on me!"

_**000**_

**Tsuna has the first member of her family. XDDD I hope everyone has enjoyed this chapter, especially the fight. I had a lot of fun writing it. **

**I'll remind you that Tsuna won't be paired with her Guardians but bare in mind that they are hormonal boys, Tsuna is still developing but she is most assuredly a girl, with all the right curves. Guys will notice if she flashes them, however accidentally, because that's what guys do. At least Gokudera is mature enough not to be childish about it otherwise he would have pissed her off and gotten more than just a punch to the back of the head in the aftermath. **


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

_**000**_

Over the next few days after gaining her first Guardian, Reborn was pleasantly surprised with Tsunayuki's dedication to learning all he had to offer. She continued with her Disciplinary Committee duties and worked late into the night to ensure her Grades maintained a minimum B-average, all the while training in combat with both Reborn and Hibari. She even took the time to train some with her surrogate older brother Sasagawa Ryohei and her new Guardian Gokudera Hayato. It was no surprise to the Arcobaleno that come Sunday morning she slept for most of the day.

He found himself strangely reluctant to wake her. She was already ahead of his projected schedule and she worked harder than any of his previous students had and with even less threatening incentive. He let her keep Sunday as a day of well deserved rest.

Monday afternoon was when everything went wrong, or rather, when everything went right in Reborn's opinion.

He had been privately wondering just how to get Baseball Star Yamamoto Takeshi to join their motley group of Guardians but Tsunayuki's reaction upon his suggestions was surprisingly negative. She may have had nothing against him as a person, but she did not trust him in the slightest.

"We've been in the same classes since kindergarden," she told him bluntly as she scrubbed at the dishes. Dinner had been finished and her mother had gone to take a bath while the younger girl cleaned up like she did every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening. "You know I was bullied badly until Hibari-senpai took me in, but not once, not _once_ did he stand up for me. He may not have taken part in it, but he did nothing to stop it. He stood there and smiled like an airheaded idiot while I had my hair hacked off, my homework torn up, my skirt flipped and I got spat on by the other students, right in front of him." She set the washed dishes on the drying rack and pulled the plug in the sink to let the soiled water drain away.

"To stand aside and let that kind of thing happen is despicable. If he can't find it within himself to speak up and try to prevent that kind of vulgar behaviour for someone he knows and has known for years, I'm not sure if I can trust him to work towards my ideals for the Vongola. That's all. I would rather we didn't bring him into the Famiglia," she told the Hitman solemnly as she dried her hands on a tea-towel.

But regardless of how valid her reasoning was, Yamamoto Takeshi was not only the spit of Primo Rain Guardian Ugetsu Asari but his athleticism was much needed, not to mention his popularity and easy going nature would be the perfect balance to the hot-tempered Storm Guardian Gokudera Hayato. The simple fact was, that out of the majority of the school, Yamamoto Takeshi was one of the exceptionally few individuals capable of that same near-limitless potential for growth that Tsunayuki possessed. It would be foolish to pass him up based on a few ideals that just happened not to mesh several years ago when he would be one of the few who could keep pace with her if offered the right kind of training.

Monday evening, the boy broke his arm while practising. Tsuna had been the one to find him and go with him to the Hospital. Thus sending Gokudera into paroxysms of horror and over-protective hate for the '_Baseball Freak_'.

It must have made for quite the entertainment to the bed-ridden teenager watching the new student freak out over the Left Hand of the Disciplinary Committee. People had already come to the conclusion that they were dating after the third time Tsuna threw a bento on the boy's desk with a disgusted sigh over how he never seemed to take the time to make his own lunch. Gokudera had burst into tears of gratitude and happiness over how '_Decima_' was so considerate and kind to him each and every time. It was a little creepy in her opinion.

The last thing she expected to hear Tuesday morning, or indeed _wanted_ to hear was:

"YAMAMOTO'S ABOUT TO JUMP OFF THE ROOF!"

She cursed and shot off, using a desk to vault over the heads of her clamouring classmates, heedless to the wide eyed looks of astonishment as she skidded around the corners of the corridors and took the stairs four at a time and banged out onto the roof. Just her luck, today the Disciplinary Committee were patrolling the Math block, Senior year had known trouble makers taking class in that area right now. She was on her own and she had _this_ mess to deal with. Great.

Shoving her way through the groups of crowding and wailing students she growled at the sight of her classmate stood at the edge of the roof, face solemn and grim.

"Yamamoto, stop it, this isn't funny!"

"You're taking it too far!" Various voices called from the crowds of panicking students.

Yamamoto shook his head dramatically, "Heh, sorry, but that's not true," he refused morosely. "After the Baseball God threw me away, I have nothing left."

"What a load!" Tsuna snapped as she stormed over, "Yamamoto Takeshi, get your backside back over this fence and cease acting like such an idiot!" she barked furiously, pointing down at the ground in front of her like an incensed mother.

Startled, Yamamoto took a step towards her without conscious thought she reminded him so much of his mother before her death. But then he shook his head and frowned at her unhappily. "No, you should be able to understand my feelings better than anyone else here, Sawada-chan. For someone who spent most of her life known as No-Good-Tsuna, Useless-Tsuna, Pointless-Tsuna, you should understand the feeling of preferring to die over failing everything," he pointed out coolly.

She shook her head, "Unfortunately, no, I don't. I'm not as selfish as you. Move your ass now, Yamamoto, we're wasting Class Time," she bit out, foot tapping against the concrete of the roof.

His face twisted into something ugly, "How arrogant of the awesome Tsuna-hime," he sneered. "So incredible now that she's got that shiny armband to hide behind and all those Seniors clamouring for her _favour_."

Tsuna bristled at the insinuation of what that '_favour_' entailed. "Watch your mouth Yamamoto," she warned quietly, foot stilling as she glared at him. "I don't have a very good temper." He scoffed and opened his mouth to retort further, but she cut him off with a sweep of her arm. "You stand there and call me arrogant, you hypocrite! Perhaps you should take a good long and hard look at yourself before you go throwing around words like that you empty-headed Jock," she snarled before folding her arms and leaning back. "You think only of yourself, have you given even a passing thought to everyone else here? All these people here, trying to stop you from doing something so monumentally _retarded_ that I really do wonder how your father can sleep at night knowing that he raised such an idiot. He must be ashamed."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" the dark haired male roared, glaring furiously at her.

Tsuna sneered, "You heard me," she spat. "Did you even give him a thought when you decided that you had to end your life? How he would feel having to _bury you next to your mother?_"

Takeshi's eyes widened and his whole face drained of colour.

"I see you didn't," the girl growled unhappily, marching forward. "Give me your arm and climb over the railings. For god's sake, your arm will _heal_. If you smash your skull open, you won't get the chance," she told him flatly as she held her hand out for him to take.

He stared at her, for the first time in his life he forced himself to actually _look_ at the dark haired girl he had tried so hard to ignore his whole life. To look away from the tears he didn't want to see falling from her eyes. Only, now... There were no tears in her dark chocolate coloured eyes now, no sadness, no more loneliness. Strength. Strength, conviction, determination and a core of steel were in her eyes. Somehow, somehow despite everything, she hadn't broken under the never-ending relentless bullying she suffered as a child. Somehow, she rose above it, she made herself _better_ because of it.

"How did you do it?" he asked softly, staring at her. "How did you not... give up?"

She sighed through her nose as she stared him straight in the eye, "Tomorrow is a new day, Yamamoto Takeshi, and the future is full of endless possibilities if only you have the strength to reach out and take it."

He looked down at her hand, still out stretched toward him. It looked so fragile, thin and birdlike, pale. But he had seen those fragile hands take down Seniors bigger than he was. They were stronger, much stronger, than they looked. So much like their owner. He looked up at her and allowed a smile to break out on his face as he reached out, taking it firmly. It felt warm and small.

"I guess I was being stupid," he admitted sheepishly.

"Damn straight you were," she told him gruffly, a small smile curling on the corner of her mouth.

Almost at once, everyone on the roof breathed a sigh of relief, cheers breaking out as Yamamoto released her hand to scratch at the back of his head awkwardly and chuckle in embarrassment.

Tsuna shook her head and took a deep breath, her hands shaking a little as she wiped her ever so slightly sweaty palms on her black skirt. That was entirely too close for comfort and not something she ever, _ever_ wanted to do again in her whole damn life. Talking suicidal classmates down from roof-top ledges was more nerve racking than Hibari-senpai's annual Grade Assessments (he checked over how all of them were doing in classes and dealt with under-performers).

CRUNCH

Several girls screamed.

Tsuna wheeled around, her eyes widening.

Yamamoto yelled in alarm as the rusted railings he was trying to climb over buckled and tore, sending him tumbling back and over the roof's edge.

"NO!"

Tsuna dove after him.

The sounds of the other students screaming – Kyoko foremost amongst them – failed to reach her as she fell through the air after her classmate.

She reached out and knotted a hand through his shirt as she twisted in mid-air.

Tsuna _**screamed**_ as she grabbed hold of one of the window ledges and held on for all she was worth as Yamamoto's weight wrenched her arm clean out of its socket.

She managed to hold on though.

"T-tsuna?" Yamamoto gasped, staring up at the crying girl in a mix of horror and awe.

She didn't hear him.

Her vision was going dark as she panted and sobbed through the pain.

"Oh my god! Someone quickly! Its Yamamoto!" immediately several windows were flung open and hands and arms stretched out to gather the Baseball Star up, people shouting to get the nurse or call an Ambulance, get the Teachers. Everything sounded as if it were coming from very far away to the young Prefect as the sharp throbbing pain in her shoulder faded and her grip on the ledge slipped.

"TSUNA!" Yamamoto howled as he saw the girl drop limply past the window before the taller of the Second Years could reach her through the upstairs window. He kicked off the people trying to help him and scrambled to his feet, rushing to the window as he stared down in horror, unable to breathe, half expecting to see the girl who saved him broken on the pavement below and hoping, praying, that he wouldn't.

Black streaked across the playground and feet away from the ground, the Head of the Disciplinary Committee almost _literally_ came flying out of no-where tackled her out of mid-air. Pale arms wrapped around her tiny frame, cradling her protectively as he rolled, landing harshly on his back with the now unconscious brunette on top of him. They were still for a moment before he sat up, the girl held carefully against his chest.

Yamamoto breathed.

_**000**_

"Mou, Gokudera-san! Its just a dislocated shoulder," Tsuna told him, frowning. "I've had more of these than I have Date-requests, I'm fine, stop fussing. More importantly, don't you have homework to do?" she asked, secretly hoping he did so that he would stop fluttering over her for ten minutes, just ten minutes of quiet! Reborn was absolutely no help, he just sat there and watched her try to fend off the care of her '_Right Hand Man_' with an expression torn between amusement and consideration.

The silver haired male shook his head happily, "No Decima! I did it all during class time so I could properly care for you during your recuperation!" he chirped enthusiastically.

Damnit. She sighed, "Thank you for your consideration, Gokudera-san," she told him tiredly. It may be annoying but it was just polite to thank someone who put so much care into her wellbeing, even if it was somewhat smothering and highly unnecessary. Gokudera however, practically glowed in euphoria with her simple words of gratitude. The three of them were currently in Tsuna's bedroom, the girl having her arm all wrapped up and in a sling after her escapade roof-diving after Yamamoto Takeshi, who had officially landed himself in Gokudera's Bad-Books for her injuries.

Nana had already come in and started bowing to Gokudera and asking him how hard it was having her for a '_No-Good-Girlfriend_', which had actually _hurt_. The Italian boy proceeded to frown and actually tell her mother off for saying something so cruel and unpleasant while her daughter was right there, he then also blew the story Tsuna had told her mother earlier. She told the woman she'd dislocated her shoulder falling down the stairs, Gokudera went and told her how she'd saved another Student's life by jumping off the roof to catch him. She was currently on the phone getting the full story from Hibari-senpai. Annoying but, she supposed she could live with it. Her father would no doubt believe it was Reborn's doing and not her own.

Reborn had not enlightened her to the small fact that he sent home regular status updates on her progress to the Noveno, and the old man had given her father quite the chewing out for his lapse in information gathering regarding his daughter. Iemitsu meanwhile was wondering how he could have miscalculated in regards to his daughter's rate of Progress so badly.

_**000**_

Dealing with the new child, Lambo, was a pain in the ass. Tsuna had so little patience for loudness and disobedience, Yume was such a well behaved little girl, not to mention having explosives thrown around her with so little care for property or collateral damage, that Lambo had ended up seated on the Naughty Step in the hall ten minutes after meeting her where he was forced to remain for another ten minutes as punishment after extracting a very firm promise not to use anymore weapons in the house. If he did, he would be on the step for half an hour and he wouldn't be allowed any dessert.

Lambo immediately came to heel and understood that while he may be louder, Tsuna was the undisputed power in the Sawada Household.

_**000**_

Gokudera was _not_ happy.

That Baseball Freak that got the Decima injured was being invited into the Family by Reborn-san. Just like that. The airheaded bastard dislocates her arm and is allowed to join the Vongola? Not to mention the fact that the Decima didn't even want him to join them either was a huge point. She didn't trust him. He must have done something awful to her, the Italian decided as he ground his teeth together, glaring at the dark haired male as he searched up and down the grounds. Clearly he was looking for Decima, idiot didn't even know that she was working in the office with the Disciplinary Committee right now.

He chewed unhappily on his cigarette. He was smoking in the Staff Smoking Pit on the roof of the Administration Building, it was the only place on the grounds that allowed him to slate his nicotine cravings without breaking the rules of the school that Decima upheld. She had been kind enough to request permission from the Senseis to let him use it as the smoking Laws in Europe were much more lax than here and it would be better if he smoked in a controlled environment rather than all over the school and littering. Also, this way he would be unable to skip lessons as the Senseis would usher him off in time to reach Homeroom. She was really looking out for his best interests and it really did warm his heart, not only that, but she even made him lunch when she found out he was utterly terrible at cooking his own food. He had truly found his home with her and he would protect her and her interests from such disgusting self-serving cockroaches like Yamamoto Takeshi. Scum sucking hanger on.

He would call him out.

He stubbed his cigarette out and shouldered his backpack, decision reached. He would call that bastard out and fight him, teach him his place and make sure he _never_ approached Decima again and didn't even think of joining the Vongola. There was no other way.

The Decima didn't want him there, so Gokudera was going to make _certain_ that he wouldn't.

_**000**_

For Reborn, watching the three teenagers come together was perfect. He didn't even have to prod them along!

Yamamoto's natural inclination to thank Tsunayuki, coupled with his friendly nature and his sense of alienation and duty that the rest of the student body heaped on him made him quite desperate for a friend that would see beyond all that and treat him normally. Even if normally for that person involved verbal abuse and the occasional kick to the head when he was being especially foolish – he seemed to appreciate the wake up calls though.

Gokudera's determination to protect Tsuna's interests and his dedication to her happiness and comfort was also playing right into his hands, prompting him into calling the dark haired teenager out. They would fight and the second a whisper of a confrontation reached Tsuna's ears, she would be on them like an angry bear – thus allowing Reborn to commence the Vongola Initiation Trial. Or at least, the aptitude testing that Reborn was disguising as the initiation trial.

His simple mindedness would work in their favour in the beginning, allowing Reborn to introduce him into the Mafia world without any of the culture shock. He would think it nothing more than an elaborate children's game to begin with, by the time he realised the truth he would be in too deep and feel not only a sense of belonging – one he didn't really have in the Baseball Club – but also a determined loyalty to Tsunayuki.

Everything would go according to plan because, unlike Iemitsu, Reborn was rarely wrong when he analysed people and made plans for the future. Had Hibari not interfered back when Tsuna was still young, no doubt his report would have been almost eerily accurate bordering on stalkerish. However, one small pebble had diverted the stream and upset so many plans. A pebble called Hibari Kyouya, the future Cloud Guardian, and a man that Reborn was _very_ interested in.

The initiation went just as expected save for the arrival of Lambo, who proceeded to use a rather rare item that Reborn had been unaware of, the Ten Year Bazooka. Nothing drastic had happened though. Tsuna had shown her formiddable skill in combat and athletics when dodging not only knives, machine gun fire but also explosive bombardment. Yamamoto had gone his best to try and defend her but really, she didn't need it and while Gokudera was torn between acceptance that he had tried, and annoyance that he thought her weak enough to need it, nothing between the two changed much when the argument of who would become her Right Hand Man was brought up.

Tsuna merely walked off, grumbling about a headache as she went to find Kyoko and beg some painkillers off the caramel haired girl.

_**000**_

**And Chapter six of Sora DONE!**

**I'll be honest, I'm a little bored with the Daily Life Arc but, /le sigh, it needs doing. In other news, for those of you who don't follow my Facebook, I've been at University studying Animation – hence the lack of updates. I am planning on doing a large Update of multiple stories soon so please, keep your eyes open and your fingers on that review button. I love hearing your thoughts and opinions. You have no idea how much it motivates me. /HEARTS**


	7. Chapter 7

_**000**_

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

_**000**_

Summer was well on its way, baking both people, plants and animals as they desperately sought shade and cool liquid, birds and cicadas could be heard through the air, the distant rush of a passing car, the shrieking laughter of children playing in back garden sprinklers. It would have been nicer if she had been able to do the same but she had already agreed to run an errand for her mother, more the fool her as it meant she would be running to the drink store on the other side of Namimori to get the particular kind of rice vinegar her mother liked to use.

Tsuna wiped at her chin with a sigh of distaste, she didn't mind working up a sweat in a fight but when it was just getting from point A to point B it was gross. She had even foregone her usual black clothing and bike shorts in favour of a yellow and white sun dress and straw-hat to shield herself. It was too hot to go running around in trousers and with her dark hair she didn't want to cook her skull.

"Should have brought a drink," she muttered to herself as she picked a small rock from between her sandalled toes.

Glancing over her shoulder at the sound of a bike bell, the dark haired teenager moved to the side to let the woman past, idly thinking that she must have been very safety conscious to wear a helmet in this kind of weather, never mind the leather pants. She must have been sweating like a pig on its way to slaughter.

She didn't expect the woman to stop and pull her helmet off, allowing thick waves of rosette coloured hair to tumble down her back, Tsuna couldn't help but feel a pang of envy at how silky and manageable it looked. She always had to wrestle with hers for about half an hour before it would stop fluffing up like an alarmed house cat. Actually, Tsuna tilted her head a little, the woman had the same eyes as Gokudera. The exact same shade of green, Tsuna remembered because she'd never seen anyone with eyes that colour before in her life – they were very striking. Taking a more careful look, she even had the same eyebrows too, her fingers were a little thicker but the same hands as well, their noses were almost identical too.

The woman smiled, rummaging in the front basket of her bike before idly tossing a can of cola at her. "Here, please have it if you're that desperate," she told the younger girl who caught the drink in her free hand.

"Uh, thank you anesan," Tsuna said, bowing her head slightly. "Um, this may seem – ah!" The other woman had already cycled off before she could finish her question. Tsuna frowned a little, pouting as she wiped a bead of sweat from her face, "How rude, in the middle of a conversation," she murmured before looking at the drink. She wasn't really a fan of cola, it made her mouth feel furry and she ended up wanting to brush her teeth immediately afterwards. And Cola and toothpaste don't mix well at all.

Wait, was that smoke rising from the can?

Alarm chilled her and she promptly flung the can as far as she could behind her and started running, her mind flashing back to the warnings Reborn gave her about the possibility of assassins looking to take her on as the next head of the Vongola Famiglia. Given how Gokudera had tried to kill her at first, there was a chance his sister/mother (though she looked too young to be a mother) could be trying the same thing!

Tying the bag more firmly around her wrist, Tsuna went off-road. She was such a familiar face in the area that no one particularly blinked as she vaulted into their gardens, calling a quick apology before jumping nimbly over their back fence. The children cheered as they watched, some rushing upstairs to watch her progress through the streets and gardens.

Unbeknownst to Tsuna, Bianchi was having a quiet giggle to herself at the sharp senses of her Love's student. She had become impatient and fed up with being left out of the loop and so decided to introduce herself. Of course the look of alarm on the girl's face was so adorably funny she decided against appearing just yet. She could have a lot of fun with the little Lioness cub.

_**000**_

Tsuna panted as she dropped into her back garden, wiping away sweat from her chin as she untangled the shopping bag from her wrist. She needed to find Reborn, if anyone would know what was going on, he would. He definitely seemed to be the obsessive compulsive type when it came to knowing everything about what everyone was doing around him.

"Reborn! Are there any – KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Tsuna screamed, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the Arcobaleno. He was absolutely covered with bugs! Not little bugs, or pretty ones like moths or butterflies or dragonflies, but great huge glistening black Stag Beetles – _all over his FACE!_

It was a little known secret that Sawada Tsunayuki, for all her threatening reputation, hated bugs. Only one person had ever used this against her and no one knew what Hibari Kyouya had done to him afterwards. No one particularly wanted to know either after the boy returned, chalk white, uninjured, got on his knees and formally apologised to Tsuna before attempting to cut his fingers off – much like when a Yakuza failed his leader. Tsuna stopped him, but either way, the boy transferred out of Namimori and to a completely different school somewhere in Okinawa. No one heard from him again.

"GET THOSE THINGS OUT OF THE HOUSE!" she screamed, skidding back against the furthest wall away from the tiny Hitman who watched her reaction with glee hidden behind a mildly amused smirk. He'd finally found an exploitable weakness in the chocolate haired girl, one he wouldn't feel too guilty – as a man – to take advantage of.

"They are my Summer Minions, they collect information for me," he explained to the shivering young girl who seemed to be trying to forcefully become one with the wall behind her with how hard she was pressing herself against it.

"I don't care what they are. Get them out of here or I'll swat you along with 'em."

"With them, I was able to learn that Bianchi approached you," he continued, as if she hadn't spoken.

"Pink haired girl, looks like she could be related to Gokudera, hands out suspicious cans of cola that hiss and smoke at you. Yeah. I met her. She's a hitman, I take it?" Tsuna asked brusquely, eyes still fixed upon the Stag Beetles. Tensing and squeaking only a little as, en masse, they snapped open their armoured backs and flew off in a small cloud of metallic black and angry humming.

The doorbell rang before the Hitman could respond, a female voice calling out, "Italian Pizza Delivery!"

Tsuna frowned, "Pizza? I thought Mum was making Takoyaki tonight," she muttered making her way down the stairs, making a mental note to hang Reborn out of the window by his ears if she ever found bugs in her bed. Actually... that voice was kind of - "You!" Tsuna snarled as she spotted the pink haired woman who attempted to kill her earlier.

"Thanks for wait-Ah!" Bianchi yelped as she dodged backwards, only just missing the kick that would have broken her jaw. Damn! Lionette was _fast!_ She didn't even give her a chance to tease Reborn about turning into a boring old fart, or have her fun threatening the new Decima. Ah well, it had been a while since she'd gotten into a no holds barred fist fight. This could be fun!

Bianchi threw the Pizza box into the younger girl's face. Tsuna swiped it aside, grabbing one edge of it and spinning, throwing it like a Frisbee right back at her all the while following close behind.

Bianchi ducked the pizza box and ended up grunting as Tsuna's knee thrust up into her stomach.

The Poison Scorpion grabbed her leg and threw her further down the path.

Tsuna twisted and skidded to her feet on the gravel, hands reaching up to block the leg that was snapping down towards her exposed neck. She yanked the leg forward and punched the back of the assassin's knee furiously making her scream before she jumped, using her now free leg to try and kick the Middle Schooler in the head.

Tsuna ducked, rolling onto her back and flipping back onto her feet in time to dive to the side and avoid a rather violently purple cupcake with ominous purple mist oozing from it. Oh great, a poison specialist.

A gunshot brought the two fighting girls up short, glancing to the house porch where Reborn had been watching them with a speculative look on his face. "Ciaossu, Bianchi," he greeted coolly.

"Reborn..." the rosette haired woman returned. Green eyes momentarily flickering towards Tsuna before returning to her Beloved. This, more than anything, told him that she was in one of those moods and planned on teasing the ever loving crap out of his newest student. Oh this should be entertaining. "I'm here to bring you back," she declared, pulling off her hat as she began to tear up slightly. "Let's do another job together, _amore mio_," she crooned, "A peaceful life doesn't suit you. The place you should be is the dark underworld, more dangerous and thrilling and suits you better by far," she told him, tearfully.

Reborn had to refrain from smirking, she was really hamming this up. "I told you, Bianchi. I have a job to raise Tsuna, so I can't."

The baby hitman blinked in surprise as the ground fell away beneath his feet. Tsunayuki picked him up, and then proceeded to plop him into Bianchi's arms. "Thank you very much. Please never return," the brunette told the older woman as she ushered the pair of Italians towards the gate.

Not quite sure of how to react to this situation, Reborn returned to his old fall back from teaching Dino – violence. He leapt out of Bianchi's arms and kicked at the brunette's head, when she lent back to avoid it, he switched tactics and grabbed her ponytail as he went down – dragging her backwards with a pain filled squeak. Sprawling rudely on her back, Tsuna winced as she fumbled with her skirt, yanking his down before anything could be seen all the while ignoring the stinging pain from where her back met the path up to the front door and where Reborn's tiny hand tangled in her hair.

"Don't hand me off like an unwanted sack of garbage," the hitman scolded flatly, giving her hair a tug. She shot a glare at him through her hair.

"Don't pull my hair," she retorted and rolled to the side quickly when he released her and aimed to kick her in the head. At least he didn't have that stupid close minded idea that he shouldn't hit a girl, it was beyond insulting that she was thought of as not worth fighting against due to her gender. They paused when Bianchi sniffled.

"Poor Reborn," she whimpered, "Unless the Decima dies due to an accident or something, Reborn won't be free again. How selfish of her for forcing him to remain at her side. I'll go home, for now. When the Decima is murd- when the Decima is dead, I'll return to you _amore mio_ and bring you back..." she tried off and sniffed again before leaving.

Tsuna stared after her. "Gokudera has some messed up family," she muttered as she got to her feet and brushed herself off. Reborn watched her as she made her way back into the house before he followed, glancing back to where he could see his former girlfriend perched on the roof of the house opposite, giggling her little ass off. He had to admit, the encounter was rather entertaining, more so than the girl's reaction to his Stag beetle army.

"How did you know she's related to Gokudera?" the hitman asked, absently wondering if the Primo's Hyper Intuition had already awakened within the brunette as she put the bottle of rice vinegar away in it's proper place before turning to rummage in the fridge for a carton of chilled juice.

"She has the same eyes," the Disciplinary Committee member admitted as she stripped the straw of it's plastic wrapping, "and nose. They have the same any of speaking Japanese, they trip over the same sounds and use the same dialect. Plus, only he's ever called me Decima," she added stabbing her juice carton and beginning to suck on it. True, that didn't mean they were related, but it didn't take much of a stretch. Both of them knew Reborn with varying degrees of familiarity, they both called her Decima, both had the same facial features and both of them had the same way of speaking Japanese – more than likely because they were taught by the same person.

Reborn hummed thoughtfully, she was more observant than he thought she was. Then again, none of his previous students had been particularly bright. He should probably introduce Dino to the new Duckling.

_**000**_

Tsuna hated home Economics. There would always be the inevitable fight in the Diciplinary Committee over who got the last of the rice-balls she made, as the first two would _always_ go to Hibari-senpai and Tetsuya-kun. This time, she was making a lot more than usual. Hibari, Tetsuya, Gokudera and Lambo, and she _supposed_ she should make one for Reborn at least, even if he had been aggravating her more than usual lately.

She ignored her classmates, their comments and their stares as she monopolised one of the rice cookers. They were just going to have to deal with it because she'd brought her own ingredients and even showed up early for once in order to bag the best cooker – anyone who complained was just going to have to explain to Hibari-senpai why he wasn't getting an onigiri today.

She quite emphatically ignored the jealous and quite frankly crude comments the fangirls made within her hearing range. She would have thought by this point they understood that such stupid things like boyfriends didn't interest Tsuna in the slightest. She had more important things to worry about, like the graffiti she had been finding more and more frequently dotted around the school. Senpai was furious.

_**000**_

She should have seen this coming, it was exactly the sort of thing the annoying little Hitman would have done. One sentence. After an entire week of dealing with the rosette haired assassin appearing from behind corners, bushes, people and attempting to put her into the hospital/morgue with her poison techniques, all it took was one sentence from Reborn and the woman was sat serving him tea with all the grace and humility of a maiko.

Tsuna got the severe impression that it was planned as the woman offered to teach her. Still, even if she preferred to punch people, the subtle approach of poison and venom wasn't one to be ignored. All knowledge was good knowledge and better she know how it could be used against her than fall prey to it because of ignorant self righteousness.

Though the fact she could practically poison Gokudera with her presence made that idea less appealing as she abandoned the older woman and her tutor in order to rub the delinquent's back as he groaned and tried to get his dizzy-spell under control in the backgarden. He really didn't look well.

She did end up bopping him on the head after he asked her to drive the woman away. Sister or not, deadly poison or not. That was just rude.

"And anyway, I already tried," she added with a sour look. "She's completely smitten with Reborn and I don't think a crow-bar and liberal application of Vaseline will get rid of her at this point." Gokudera looked like he'd been kicked in the groin as Tsuna sighed and scratched the back of her neck, thinking hard. "Give me your address," she finally decided, holding a hand out. "If you can't come here, then I'll just have to go to yours," she decided, waiting expectantly.

The cigarette in Gokudera's lips dropped to the ground as he gaped at the Tenth. Had she really... She was consenting to leave the comfort of her own home and lower herself to spend time in the tiny filthy little hovel he slept in just so he wouldn't be affected by the trauma his sister gave him?

Tsuna frowned a little, was he trembling? She lowered her arm. Uh oh, had she offended him somehow? Italian customs were different from Japanese, different from American and British as well. Perhaps girls weren't allowed to visit their male friends? He did come from the throne of the Catholic Pope and from what she knew Catholicism had some strange ideas about girls and how they should behave towards men.

"DECIMA!" the silver haired teen wailed, throwing his arms around her and hugging tightly. Holy shit, was he crying?

Tsuna panicked as the fifteen year old blubbed against her.

_**000**_

Summer vacation never really came for the Disciplinary committee, they were still expected to be in the school and upholding the peace for those students who were taking remedial summer lessons - most of them being delinquents and trouble makers. Still, the uniform dress code was relaxed, meaning that Tsuna wasn't cooking in her uniform as she patrolled the corridors. She was however regretting her decision to wear the simple white sundress and sandals when she was cornered by one Yamamoto Takeshi just outside of their classroom after everyone else had left for the day. She wanted the shield that her armband and her neat little black uniform, bike shorts, ponytail and steel-toe capped boots gave her. She felt uncertain and a little vulnerable in the sundress with the surprisingly tall black haired boy looming over her. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, but, that didn't mean he wouldn't try and she'd already had her expectations of him shattered when he attempted to throw himself off a roof. What else was he capable of? She didn't like feeling vulnerable and the floaty and loose fabric of her clothing wasn't helping her any - it was likely to fly up if she attempted a kick and she wasn't wearing shorts today and it wasn't like she could kick in her sandals either, she would hurt herself more than someone else. And her hair was loose. It would get in the way, in her eyes and her mouth and likely choke her if she accidentally inhaled it and she actually looked like a girl and not like the vehicle of destruction she could be and...

"Uh, Ts-Sawada-chan? Can I, er, talk to you for a second?" he asked nervously, running a hand through his short cropped black hair. Peeking at her with brown eyes that were hopeful and anxious and guilty all at once and reminding her entirely too much of her mother in that split second that any idea of an attack fled.

And she dearly hoped this wasn't a confession. No one had ever confessed to her before – she didn't have the slightest idea of what to do, how to respond, or how to let him down gently. Given how he reacted to failing Baseball, she didn't want to see how he would react to a clumsy, tactless rejection.

Her discomfort and alarm must have shown on her face because Yamamoto was waving his hands rapidly, "I just want to talk! I would never raise a hand against you Sawada-chan! Not after, well, you saved my life and I just... I wanted to say thanks," he admitted awkwardly and Tsuna relaxed, relieved almost as much as she was secretly a little disappointed. She didn't like Yamamoto like that, but no girl likes to feel herself undesirable. But it was to be expected. She was a member of the DC. And guys didn't like it when their girlfriends could put them in hospital.

"As long as you never do something that stupid again, we'll call it even. You took part in the crazy kid's game. Even after he started throwing around explosives," she pointed out as amiably as possible.

He nodded and shuffled a little, looking uncertain. "You jumped off a roof for me, dislocated your arm, said some real painful but important stuff that I needed to hear. Humouring a kid doesn't seem like a good enough repayment," he muttered, peeking at her from under his eyelashes.

She frowned and folded her arms, "It wasn't like I was going to let you die when I could do something," she snapped firmly. Just who did he think she was?

Yamamoto stared at her with those assessing eyes her mother looked at her with every once in a blue moon. "But you were the only one there who did," he stated, as if coming to the realisation himself. A blinding smile crossed his face. The one she remembered from their childhood. The one from before his mother's death. The one that had never crossed his face until now. Tsuna blinked, leaning back, a little shocked. She had forgotten, in her annoyance and hurt, that Yamamoto was actually quite good looking. Enough so that he deserved the fangirls he had. He should smile more often. And not those disgusting fake grins of his. "Call me Takeshi," he suddenly told her.

Tsuna frowned at him in confusion, "Why?" she asked, drawing the word out in suspicion.

"I want to be your friend. And friends call each other by their first names, ne?" He pointed out, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Perhaps to him it was but for Tsuna, it was news to her.

"We haven't been friends for a long time," she reminded him quietly. Not since before his mother's death. They hadn't been close, but she still remembered hot afternoons when her father was out of the country and the smiling nice man would bring his son and they would play in the sandbox, those same games that she played with her father. Her Barbie Princess and his Mecha Warriors. How he taught her how to climb trees and how they met Kyoko and Ryohei when they told off Mochida for throwing frog-spawn at the other girl. And then Takeshi's mum got sick and he stopped coming to the park. And then when they went to elementary, he had that horrible fake smile on and never seemed to notice when Tsuna was being picked on even when she knew he did.

But then again... "I suppose it would have happened anyway," she muttered, "Boys that age don't have friends who are girls. We've got cooties," she reminisced with a small wry smile that made the look of shame and guilt that painted itself on the tall boy's face slip away in confusion and then embarrassed amusement at his own stupidity. He chuckled, nervously and Tsuna squared up to him properly. Reborn was right. That was in the past. Yamamoto wasn't a bad person. She could see that now. He just hadn't been able to let anyone in since his mum died. No one ever took the time to see past those horrible smiles of his. No one cared enough to _do_ something. And she had been too scared, too useless, too... too... _Dame_ to help him.

"Don't think that we can go back to the way things were," she declared shortly, making his laughter die in his throat almost immediately. "But..." she allowed a small smile to settle on her mouth, "That doesn't mean we can't make something better. Takeshi-kun."

_**000**_

Reborn could have burst into _song_.

Finally, finally, his student had accepted the Baseball Star as one of her Famiglia. It had been an uphill battle from the very beginning due to their unhappy history and to be honest, Reborn had believed the matter a failure when a week after his assessment game yielded absolutely no contact between the two teenagers. Gokudera was proving much better at running interference than even Reborn had anticipated – he would have to keep an eye on him, he was using his intellect in ways that the Acrobaleno hadn't thought him comfortable enough to use and thus hadn't accounted for yet. It should have taken another year for Gokudera to feel secure enough with his place at Tsuna's side to allow that mind of his to be revealed, it had gotten him into difficulties with fast Famiglias he had attempted to integrate into, thus making it a bit of a sour note in his skill set. One he didn't like using due to the possible repercussions.

But either way, Yamamoto Takeshi had managed to get the Lionette's approval. The fact that they had been friends, as their conversation had alluded to, before whatever unhappy incident split them apart made the situation a lot more satisfactory. Yamamoto Takeshi would be just as loyal and dedicated to the young Vongola Heiress's health and wellbeing as Gokudera Hayato.

Now to gather the rest of the Famiglia. Things were falling into place.

_**000**_

**I just want to thank everyone for their patience over the last two months. They have been very difficult for me in terms of University and in my personal life. Some people may be familiar with these difficulties through my facebook where I endeavour to keep everyone up to date on problems and story progresses. So I would suggest those of you who want to know what's being written, what's being drawn or in the works add me or just keep an eye on the page.**

**I hope you've been enjoying Sora 8) I have enjoyed writing it, even if I find the Daily Life Arc tedious and a bit boring. Things should hopefully pick up.**

Also, question: I have a major hate for Iemitsu. Would anyone be opposed to a Tsuyoshi/Nana pairing? (Yamamoto's Dad and Tsuna's mum) I've grown quite fond of it tbh, even if I've only seen it in one story.


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